Beyond the planet of the apes
by Marleli
Summary: As the gate opens on the ruins of an old city the empire decided to colonize this new world making it a place where the humanity is going to rule without the presence of the other races, but this new world has already a master
1. for he will make a desert of his home

As the Imperial legion crossed the gate that was at Alnus hill, the soldiers could do nothing but wonder what awaits them on the other side of the gate, perhaps a vast land full of fertile soil and riches that would expand the empires borders? Or they would find a mighty opponent that they would bring to its knees on the battlefield?.

The only thing that they found was the beginning of the end of humankind.

The first thing that came to meet Marius vision were ruins, giant towers of stone that scrapped the skies on another era, now crumbring at they own weight and covered on various kinds of flora,they explored the ruins in search of life they were almost giving up when they saw in the distance of the main road figures moving, at first they were walking but at the moment they noted the men in the horses started to run away, Marius decided to take some risk and charged towards the figures, with his guards with him, as he got closer he could see more details about them, they were humans wearing almost nothing other than loincloth, Marius drew his sword and charged at the one closer to him, it was a woman but it dint matter as he sliced her killing her on the spot, the rest of the men follow his example and pierced with they spears and swords at them leaving some of them on the ground, Flavius, Marius right hand got off his horse and started to walk towards one of them that was on the ground, he raised his sword to finish him.

-stop Flavius, we still need to have to collect information-

Flavius nodded and grabbed the man before him

-youre right Marius, although he looks like a savage he may have useful information for us-

Marius got off his horse too and kicked the man

-where is the rest of your people?-

Marius already knew that the man wouldn't be able to answer as they must speak different languages, but still, he could make sings or a movement that would help,

But it didn't, it wasn't that he refused but instead that he simply couldn't do it, he moved his mouth but no word nor sound come out of it, he appeared afraid but it wasn't the kind of fear that a men would show it was something that an animal that could comprehend the situation would do.

-I don't think that this savage is able to speak Flavius-

Flavius was looking his surrounding thinking about the men that they killed

-they didn't even run properly or scream, they are dumb as any farm animal they ran on instinct, not because of fear-

Marius agreed with Flavius

-if all the races here are as smart as him we are going to rule this place on a month-

-what are we going to do know Marius?-

-For now, we are going to make an outpost at the outskirts of this ruins, then I need to send letters to the capital so we can start making a colony here-.

Marius and Flavius got on their horse and rode back to the army.

Three months have passed since they arrived, Marius has been given the title of Governor-General in charge of the new colony on the other side of the gate, he was at his desk writing on his diary.

"The first wave of colonist have arrived and started to settle on the land, with the development that we are having we are expected to start collecting taxes in the next year, the savages living here are the perfect slaves, they are coming to us in great numbers and are accepting everything that we put them to do, but since a month ago the mutual feeling of the people of the colony is the same...

He stopped for a moment thinking the correct words.

We are feeling that something is watching us. We build the colony away from the gate at the outskirts of the ruins because we couldn't plant anything nor build in the fear that something might fall apart but the outside of the ruins is even worse, a big forest spwans as far as the eye can see, it appears that the savages are coming from the forest but the expeditions that we have made had been pointless,we could find the origin of thesavages and every time the scouts return thet are afraid saying that the wood must be alive, that they feel that they are being watched by something also it began to appear this problem with the emblems, signs carved on some woods and walls all around the colony, perhaps are the savages the ones making them, but as the days passed we found some of them in the barracks and other areas were we don't let them enter, I would like to resolve this matters, but I have been reguested to report the pogress at the capital, I hope at the moment of my return I can resolve all of this matters"

Marius stopped writing in his diary and dresses before going out.

-"good day, Marius"-

Flavius was waiting for him outside the building

-"good day Flavius, how are the men today?"-

Flavius smile turned into a serious face and after a moment of silence spoke

-is not good Marius, the morale is dropping. I've been hearing whispers in the barrack, the soldiers are wondering why the savages are coming to us in the first place, also they have been reports of stolen and lost items all around the colony and is been already a day since the scouting party of Aleianus step in into the forest-

Marius looked around him and Flavius and made a sign so Flavius lowered his voice

\- I know we are having problems but we must remain calm if this leak to the people panic is going to spread across the colony, can't let that happen, today Im going to the capital to report to the emperor and the Senate, when I come back we will resolve all this problems, for the moment I will grant you the title of regent, I need that you sen more scouts parties to the woods so we can find Aleianus and his men's-

Flavius although uncomfortable and not convinced enough nodded at Marius orders, Marius knew how Flavius felt since they have been together since almost thirty years becoming close friends, but for the plans that they have on this new world he must leave.

As they were walking towards the gate Marius overheard the conversation of two woodcutters.

-I telling you I saw something moving in the woods the other day-

\- Avilius you must be tried there is nothing more here apart from bears and this savages-

-Julius what I saw was no bear nor one of the savages, it was something that could be a combination of them, at first it looked like a bear cub but when it saw me it raised on his two feets and ran away, you feel the same as I on this last days, the woods feels alive and every time I go out to chop wood I feel that it is whispering me, something is really wrong with this place-

Marius ignored them and continued walking, he part away midway to the gate and ride his horse looking the ruins, what would be the reason of the ruins and why the only race in here were imbecile humans? He started to cross the gate when at the distance he could almost hear some kind of roar


	2. Human see, human do

"Beware the beast Man. For he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. He will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death".

After saying that general ursus started to speak again in his broken English, he may not be as fluent as the orangutans who kept the real power on the ape society but he knows that the message was clear -"the lawgiver gave us those words and all of us must respect them, we must continue the destruction of the human tribes that remain on this planet!"-,the council erupted in roars of protest and cheering's alike when it stopped an orangutan by the name Froydor spoke -"we already destroyed all the humans tribes of our land the rest appeared to go to the forbidden zone they will surely die there is just a matter of time, stop seeking glory where there is none Ursus"- feeling triumphant of his statement Froydor looked at Ursus expecting what nonsense he would dare to say -"i had sent apes to the forest of the forbidden zone and they had found humans riding horses, using weapons again but while we were observing them they were speaking in some kind of human language!"- Froydor not waiting another minute spoke -"first! You send apes to the forbidden zone, were based on the same sacred scrolls of the lawgiver that it appears you love to much to quote it said to never venture there, and now you are lying about intelligent humans! how far will your delusions get you?"-,Ursus say nothing but made a sign to a gorilla behind him, the gorilla go away only to bring a chained man. To the council It was nothing more than a human wearing clothes far more advanced than the other humans, Froydor was the first one who spoke "-what is supposed to be this ursus?"- -is one of the survivors of the group of humans we found on the forest we killed and hang the others as a sign for the other humans, that way they will not follow us, he had also this with him" he showed Aleianus sword. And armor "his tribe appear to be more advanced than the rest of the humans, they are using tools and weapons and they are coming more every day trough a strange building,we must stop this tribe to expand in our land we must organize our armies and attack the humans and killed them all!"- the first one to cheer where the gorillas they would always be the first to cheer.

-"this is nonsense,humans aren't capable to talk let alone organize a large tribe"- froydor grabed Aleianus head and continue speaking without Caring for the face of horror that the human had -we have more important things to do that following craziness of a power lust general, obviously we mu"- -" **Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty creature** !"- the council went silent.

-the imperial colony-

With Marius gone, the colony had been feeling more and more unsafe everyday, Flavius had been doing his best to maintain public order from collapsing even doing things like calling for reinforcement from the garrison in italica, since the other side of the gate didn't had any need of an army for defense they were sent to other parts of the empire were they were more needed. The news of a colony in a new unexplored world would make a lot of people to fear scared to left all behind but to find riches and knowledge made the bravest or crazy enough to cross the gate in great numbers, so the empire let mages and other humans to cross but quietly let the other races out of their plans of expansion a new land free of other races were humanity could prosper alone was the dream of all the emperors, mages and masters from Rondel started to go to the new land and a famous sage and her apprentice from coda village decided to explore this new land.

Marius time on the capital was uneventful they receive him as a conqueror who had just dominated a enemy kingdom when he just go to an old abanoned ruin and established a colony, the Rose-Order of Knights of the imperial princess piña co lada were doing their duty to help the parade, Marius almost felt pity for her, the knights that joined the legion were skilled in fencing and plannings but still the main duty for the order were for parades like these.

After he reported to the senate he decides to rest on his villa on the capital for sometime here one day received the letters from Flavius, he grabed the letter and started to read.

"I write you with ill news Marius, we had found Aleianus men, all of them were dead and hanging from a tree,their equipment and horses are gone, we don't even know who or what could hang them from such a big tree. And now we are having people gone missing,so far two woodcutters, four hunters and another damm scout party had gone missing, i don't know what is out there in the woods but we need more men and not only guards we need a army to fight whatever is coming to us, i beg you Marius return to the colony with more men or i fear that all our work is going to be lost".

Marius stopped reading and called one of his servants -"what do you request of me my lord?"- Marius with the letter still on hand say -"bring me ink,paper and a fast messenger we must organize an army to go to the gate once more"- he had a bad feeling and he needed to go back before is too late.

Ursus's ape were already doing ambushes on the humans who left the settlement to gather resources, some were hanged on the trees others were captures and sent to the ape city for interrogation and experimentation

After all it had been six hundred years since the humans started to die because of a virus and the apes rised against the humans, an ape named Koba guided the apes toward their freedom and declare war against any human, the humans already weak by the virus were no match for the ape's growing population and intelligence, soon the virus Mutated leaving the humans without the ability to speak and became nothing more than a plaque for the apes.

But now that the humans were building homes, planting crops and forging weapons a new fear of a human attack growed by the day and for that reason the council gave general Usus all the power to do what it must Be done to stop the human menace.

although ape society had advanced so much still were no match for the weapons that the humans had in the past, Planes were still a dream for them and the production of more of the ancient tanks and artillery guns were still far for coming true, they could create some weapons based on some of the guns and copy the ammunition but they were still limited for all the apes in the army so spears and bows were seen along with rifles of the old humans faster and deadly than the ones made by the apes that were still semi-automatic and needed to be reloaded more frequently, the horse-pull wagons were used along the newly re-created cars but were still in a early phase and were no match to what the humans used to had, artillery was becoming the new pride of the ape army,big and heavy but it could fire long distances and create a lot of destruction where it hitted and the production of mortars had already been going for a time.

Ursus made a visit to the human zoo where they kept the humans that were not used for target practice, he felt disgusted by the smell that the humans had as he walked looking at the cells and he stopped at one with a lone human sitting in the end of the cell -you look disgusting "creter"- that was the way the zookepers decided to named him as he appears to say "creters" a lot at the end of his words,Aleianus stood up and started shouting -dammed creature i demand you to open this cell at once! and maybe the empire will be merciful when we kill your children and burn your cities!- Ursus dind't understand a word of what he was saying but he knew when someone was insulting him, he felt his blood boil, after all how dared a mere animal to insult the greatest general among the apes, he grabbed a Cane used to control the humans and opened the cage -silence human!- and started to beat him, fury make him lost himself at the moment and he only stopped when one of the zookepers tell him, he snapped back to reality, he watched the human broken body his face covered in blood and His hands facing a weird direction, Ursus got out of the cell and closed it leaving Aleianus alone -"disgusting savage creatures"-.

When he left the zoo he saw an ape with two horses he was on top of one and the other was for Ursus -sir the soldiers are ready to march toward the human settlement- as Ursus climbed the horse and started moving decided to ask -and how are the scouts doing?- -they are doing fine sir, it appears on the reports that the humans are starting to bring more soldiers from that structure in the center of the ruins- he nodded and take a deep breath of air and said -it must be a old bunker they must have been hiding in there all this time, we must destroy the settlement and kill all the humans living down there- the ape just nodded and continue to ride along Ursus, once again the apes were going to war againts the humans.


	3. No mercy No peace

Lelei la lelena was amazed by the ruins on the other side of the gate although there was nothing that really worked there it looked that in the past belonged to a great society highly advanced with great knowledge of how the world worked.

in the first days they visited what it must be a great library that in the past must have thousands of books now the only thing that appeared to remain was the book shells the rest of the city had the same fate, everything was covered in fungus and other kinds of plants but still in this state the artifacts founded across the ruins were still useful if they could discover how it used to work.

Lelei and her master were travelling again far from the colony, the guards told them not to do it because of the danger but the longer the distance from the colony and the usual exploration points more things they could find.

today they were exploring what looked like an old prison, but it was very odd, in the first place the entrance was a great iron gate with sculptures of Diferents kind of exotic creatures and most of the cells were on the open and in the walls it had murals of different places like forest and deserts and snow covered plains, in every cell it had a sign painted in what Appeared to be what in another time was inside them, some has picture's of a giant and long necked creature others of some kind of sea creature but what caught lelei attention was one habitat.

The cell bars were gone and what appeared to be ripped apart, she got close to the sign in front of the cell where she looked at the image of a creature covered in fur and standing in his legs, she tries to read the letters in the sign, or trying to do it although they had recovered somesings with letters it was almost impossible try to saying the words but looking at the savages trying to talk give then a little idea of how some words were pronounced so she tries to say the words that were still readable -orixxx frox Africa and xxxxx of the famxxx of xxx xxx- it was difficult as try to find what was the meanings - the xxxxxxxxze is an Ape- Before she could finish something make a sound close to her and her master.

she prepared to make a spell in case of something happened but she stopped when she saw the maker of the noise, it was almost identical from the creature of the picture, but it was dressed in green and brown clothes and was on his two feet like the image, but where the picture it looked peaceful and just standing for a moment before starting to move on his four limbs this ape was fully erect and it was looking directly at lelei's eyes, every second that passed she felt more and more uncomfortable.

kato spoke, - I see that you found something interesting , what is that creature?- as soon as Kato spoke the ape sat on the floor and started making cute noises and moved on his four's towards Kato, lelei felt relieved that the creature stopped seeing her but still had that uncomfortable feeling about the creature as it approached her master.

-lelein don't you think this creature is cute? look, is grabbing my robes and his fur look very smooth- Kato started patting the ape and Lelei noticed that it twitched a little when her master touched him,-master if you have so much time to play with the local fauna why didn't you enlist yourself on the exploration teams to the forest?- kato stopped patting the animal and looked serious to lelei.

-is too dangerous, the guards and the regent-governor may want to keep it a secret but is not working, the people that go to explore the forest are disappearing and they can't hide the growing military garrison on the barracks.

He continued - I was going to tell you when we return to the colony that this was going to be our last week in this land we are returning to falmar were is safer- lelei wanted to protest, but she knew her master was right, she would start packing as soon as they go back to the colony, but at least she wanted to get some artifacts that were not already found on the ruins and this place Looked like the perfect place, she continued walking when she noticed that on the corners of the building were more of the same creatures but they had spears and some kind of metal sticks, but before she could Say something she heard something dropping and turn around to see her master on the ground while the ape was on top of him grabbing him by the neck, she tried to make a spell but something hit her head and her world went black.

Cypus ever since he got to the other side of the gate hated the forest, the trees were big and the branches cover the sky so it appeared that it was night the moment you stepped in and for his bad luck he was part of the scout parties that were meant to enter the forest and find the disappeared colonist and other scouts parties, he entered the woods this morning with other ten men and a mage that himself searched in the case something would happen he could burn the damn forest to the ground.

they were riding in the woods for some time now, he looked at the captain, he was a man in his fifties, an old veterant that in his brown hair had already long straits of gray, he looked at his hand grabbing at all times his sword and never breaking his attention to the noise that the forest made, he tried to drink some water and noticed that he was shaking, it would be a lie to say he Wasnt afraid, dammed forest had already taken seven scout parties and he was one of the men that found Aurelius men's hanged on the trees.

Nothing could stop whatever was here from killing them as well, as he was thinking of that one he noticed that everyone stopped, he cleared his throat and spoke -whats wrong captain?-

already rising his sword the captain spoke -the forest is too silent, everyone on guard- they had drawn already they swords and were looking at their surroundings, but they Didn't see anything, but felt surrounded already.

cold sweat run on Cypus forehead, "where are they" he wondered, panic started to increase inside him, that Made him focus more on the noises and he heard the branches of the trees and noticed some leaves falling, he looked up as fast as he could and screamed -they are on top of us!-.

the apes roared as they jumped from the trees and attacked, the soldiers that weren't fast enough to react were killed when the apes trowed spears at them.

the mage started casting fire spells burning the apes that jumped at him but one ape Threw his spear at the horse killing the beast making the mage fall and before he could stand an ape jumped at him and stabbed him with his knife, the pride he felt on the killing was short as Cypus swung his sword beheading him on the spot.

Cypus looked at his surroundings and watched the corpses of his companions, all were dead except one

the captain was still alive, he was killing the apes that decided to attack him, swinging his sword down to one who tried to grab his leg to throw him off the horse and swinging as fast as he could to another that just jumped from the nearest tree.

he was unmatched but his men were not, almost all were dead already and he knew that fighting until the end wasn´t the correct way to end this.

he shouted to the only men that still had an opening towards the colony, he shouted to Cypus -retreat to the colony at once inform them about the enemy I will distract them!-, Cypus retreated leaving the captain alone against the apes.

The captain was getting tired he had managed to kill all the creatures that attacked him but still, he was surrounded, the creatures were no longer attacking him and kept their distance.

he was looking for an incoming attack when he saw that a new creature arrived, it was almost double the size of the others and it was wearing a helmet that covers his head but leaving his face showing, his armor, inferior looking compared to legionary armor, but now he knew that what they lacked on armor their compensated on raw strength.

he looked at the gorilla hand, he had a big metal curb with spikes, he tried to inspect more of his opponent, but he gorilla attacked him faster than he expected.

he tried to block the attack with his sword, when he noticed that it wasn't aimed at him, the curb smashed the horse head splashing the ground with blood and gore, he fell to the ground and before the gorilla made his second strike he barely managed to doge the attack and tried to swing his sword at the gorilla arm but the gorilla was wearing leather on his arm so the sword couldt pierced much, the gorilla roared in pain and trowed the curb, grabbed the captain arm and punched his head and trowed him, the captain on the ground only felt his head wet with blood, he could t stand and his mind was going dark, he looked the gorilla taking his curb and swinging it up before smashing his head.

Aldo retrieve his curb from the old dead human, he may be old but managed to kill several of his apes and even made on of the humans that were with him to escape obviously it was going to alert the human settlement of their coming, but it dint matter because the ape army was already on their way and in the last days managed to get to the old ruins we were ready for the attack, one ape got close to aldo -sir this was the last human party on the Woods now we must join the main Force for the upcoming battle, Aldo nodded and looked for the last time. To the human corpse and his sword, Aldo kneed and grabbed the swords from the corpse -a fine weapon- more apes appeared with hordes for him and his men, now was the Begining of the real war.


	4. Extremism in defense of apes is no vice

Flavius listened carefully what Cypus was saying, but inside his mind he was thinking what would be the best action to do, stay on the colony and defend it or leave it.

Staying meant that he could fight the enemy here and repel them and wait for refoircment, or he could leave and get the refoircment himself but that would mean leave the colonist alone at their fate.

-so this creatures are covered in fur and had been using the forest to make the ambushes?- Cypus nodded, he had just arrived to the colony and requested immediate meeting with the regent

-that's correct my lord, they Attacked my group from above and killed the men who weren't fast enough to react, and they all very strong sir, i saw how only one could bring one of us to the ground with his arm-

Flavius looked at the man before him, his clothes Torn and dirty and his sword still had blood in it, his group had left just this morning so they weren't far from the colony when the ambush happen.

-the enemy must be opening a path towards the colony to attack, we need to prepare the defenses and send the colonist back to the gate-

Flavius started to write a letter and after he finished and sealed stood up and handed to cypus

-i must stay and help with the defense of the colony, you will send the colonist trough the gate and then hand this letter to a general named Marius, understood?-

Cypus took the letter,nodded at Flavius and exited the room, he must begin at once he doesn't have much time left.

Flavius put his armor on as he heard from outside the voices of men and women packing in a hurry to get out of the colony before the arrival of the enemy, flavius made a small prayer to Emroy before joining his men.

Cypus, ahead of the colonist, was feeling confident, after all if the creatures were only good at doing ambushes and using spears and arrows the colony walls and towers are going to stop then at the gates, with that in mind Cypus left the new world.

Flavius was on top of his horse, the soldiers were already waiting for the upcoming attack in their post, an hour ago, after the colonist left they started to hear noises from the woods, the enemy abandoned the idea of concealing their presence and were on sight.

Cypus's report was right, the creatures were covered in fur and were as ugly as any other of the other races back home, they had black skin and all of them were wearing black leathered clothes, Flavius watched with disgust how the enemy was rallying his forces for the battle.

Opposed of how Cypus reported, the creatures weren't using spears and bows but instead they had wooden sticks with a metal barrel, he could see some of the enemies were putting knives on the beginning of the sticks and were kneeling in lines, while other were installing large metal tubes far behind the other creatures.

Flavius looked at his men and decided to make a speech to the men

"Today men, we fight for the empire, today we will..."

Thunderous noises interrupted Flavius's speech and the sound of whistles followed becoming louder and louder, Flavius instinct saved him as he yelled to the men -Everyone take cover now!-

His voices was muted by the multiples explosions that followed and the screams of agony of the soldiers.

Aldo watched with delight how the humans were dying in the explosions of the mortars and was preparing for the assault the moment a mortal hit one of the walls he wanted to be of the first to enter the settlement,

At last on of the mortars hit the wall destroying it, Aldo roared and charged with the other apes with his gun towards the enemy.

Flavius fell from his horse and watched the panic of all the soldiers, whole groups of men were wiped out from the explosions and now a crater was the only thing left and the men close to it were missing their arms or legs if they were lucky enough, he stood up and unfold his sword, he needed to go to the breached wall before the enemy could enter.

The soldiers were making a shield wall on the breach and watched how their enemy were drawing closer, some men lost their patience and ran toward the apes to kill them, the apes pushed the rifle's trigger.

Flashes of light and small thunderous sounds started coming from the creatures sticks and Flavius men fell one by one, their armor, useless against the lead bullets where slaughtered,

Flavius watched how the men were killed all around him, the enemy was merciless, maimed men on the ground were stabbed while the creatures had what appeared to be a smile, Flavius ran toward one of the creatures and managed to pierced him, at close combat they were even with them but he knew that it was a lost battle, he saw his horse and ran toward it and mount it, it was a lost cause defending the colony til dead, he was scared so he rode Onward the gate leaving the remaining men behind.

The apes noticed him and started shooting at him but Flavius horse was fast, he was almost reaching the gate evading the apes that approach him,and as he was about to enter one bullet hit the horse and he fell and as he was standing up another bullet pierced his back, he hit the ground and tried to move but it was useless, he started feeling cold and felt the blood coming out of his body he tried to crawl to the gate but he passed out.

Aldo grabbed the human that was on the ground and noticed that he was still breathing, he decided to send him to the human zoo's for medical attention so later they could take more information from him and the other captured humans, as he was walking across the human settlement, he felt proud of the killing,some apes were still shooting to humans that were hiding and started to sack the barracks, the council give them instructions to bring any useful information of their enemy as well as any surviving human from the battle.

When ursus arrived to the ruins with his guards, as well as Froydor and a big group of orangutans, they requested to go as representatives of the council, to observe the army actions and also to collect information from the humans hiding on that bunker on the center of the ruins.

Apes were marching trough the gate, and soon Ursus and Froydor rode along.

-i hope your apes aren't destroying any valuable information general-

Froydor despised Ursus, he thought that he was a foolish ape that only wanted glory instead of the greater good.

-my apes are gonna to do what it must be done, this human filth must be eradicated from our world-

-so you can have glory to yourself?-

-SO our kind can live in peace Froydor-

The darkness helped Froydor to hide his disgusted face,

-then why not destroy the entry of this place?, if the humans were leaving this it must meant that they were low on rations and were gonna die over time-

-what if they had more ways to go out to the surface?, no, we must kill everyone of them here and now Froydor that is the reason why the council choose me to lead the army-

-the council choose you so you can be away from the more important things we are doing, but i refuse that we leave you alone in this campaign, i don't want to any valuable artifact get destroyed just because you wanted something to shoot at-

-if the artifacts that you may find there are dangerous for us i will destroy it-

-and what would qualify to you as dangerous Ursus?, something that is against the lawmaker words?-

It looked that a fight was about to begin between those two but a light on the end of the tunnel stop them, Ursus rode fast and Froydor followed him as he gets to the other side of the gate, there was no hidden bunker of the remnants of humanity, they instead looked at an open green field as far as the eye could see.

It was a whole new world.


	5. His emotions must rule his brain

Froydor was trying to make sense of the situation, maybe the city was close to this hill, and so, it wasn't a bunker but a tunnel, but that doesn't explain the reason why at the moment of entering the gate it was just the evening but right now the sun was just rising in the sky

perhaps he lost the track of time while he was discussing with Ursus, but if that was the case the other apes wouldn't have that shocked appearances on their faces, they were looking around trying to find if there was something out of place perhaps it was a illusion caused by the air in the tunnel and all of this was not real , some kneeled and grabbed the dirt and smell it to find something wrong but it was normal dirt,

-stop acting as little children and start making trenches-

Ursus was the first to break the silence, giving orders as fast as he could, a good soldier was one who didn't stop to think about their surroundings and just obeyed the orders of their leaders,

\- I want someone to cross this gate again and bring the rest of our forces, then I want some scout parties making a surveillance of the area and the rest will start to dig up the ground and make trenches to be prepared in the case of an enemy attack-

the apes started to move as soon as Ursus stopped talking, the ones who had more gorillas dropped their backpacks and grabbed the shovels inside

the regular equipment on the ape army, aside from the rifle and ammo was, a shovel per ape as well as an axe and a combat knife so apart from fighting they could clear obstacles that could appear on their path during the expeditions outside the human cleared territory, and in case of by some unfortunate event they got separated from the groups they had a canteen as well as some ration that where mostly nuts and dried fruits as well as a compass so they could return safely.

they started digging up the ground the faster they could as time was something that they do not have, although these humans were as easy to kill as any other human so far they were smarter so acting as this was another human hunt was not an option.

-so what do you think about this place froydor? had any ancient relic that you want to take home?-  
Urus laughed on his insides as he sees the scared face of Froydor

-perhaps I overestimate the adventure lust and seek knowledge of the orangutans, you wanted something new to report to the council, what about this-

Ursus open his arms looking at the sky and after taking a breath of air said

-a whole new land in a different place than our own-

Froydor decided to talk before Ursus continued his babbling

-I was just admiring the land, sure, is a thrilling experience to find out that this gate was not a bunker entrance, but a new place, I wonder what we may find here, don't you think the same Ursus?-

-it could become an important land for our society, if, of course, you don't blow everything that moves in this place-

-I would only kill humans and other things that may be a danger to us don't worry about that-  
Froydor knew that there is no need to continue this discussion, for the time being, he still needed to go and inspect the rest of the human settlement in case of finding something useful

-fine Ursus, I will leave you at the moment to do what you must do, but, you still need to report to the council representatives that are going to be along with you on this matter-

Alright

Froydor crossed the gate leaving Ursus with the army preparing defences.

Marius marched with an army similar to the one that crossed the gate in the first place, Demi-Humans, Orcs and Goblins were on the front, they were used as cannon fodder when they were used on frontal attacks and protected the main human forces from any damage until they clashed with the enemy force, also he expected as the enemy hasn't seen any other creature apart from the humans they were gonna be at a disadvantage in the event of a battle.

he rode on his horse to italica and he could see countless camps around it, dozens of tired colonist from the gate were there some of the original group may have returned to their villages or other towns but this one may be people who abandoned everything on this new expedition, he felt ay fault he failed them at protecting them.

he noticed that they were almost no guards or soldiers from the colony making him feel more unease about the situation, he dismounted his horse and walked around the camps, the settlers didn't pay much attention to him for they were tired from all the walking, as he looked around he noticed a soldier that looked as tired as the rest of the colonist, as he got closer he noticed the ragged clothes and dirty appearance,

as he made noise so the man doesn't get startled, Cypus looked at Marius and immediately ran towards him.

-Sir, are you perhaps General-governor Marius?

Marius nodded making Cypus to kneed at him

-My lord I bring vital information to you, sir! the colony is under attack! we must reinforce it at once, the enemy is dangerous, and-

-calm down and breathe, tell me what is your name?-

Cypus took a deep breath and continued

-My name is Cypus milord I´m from Bellnahgo and a member of the scout's division on our colony on the other side of the gate-  
-what news do you bring Cypus?

as Marius said that Cypus took out a letter with Flavius seal,

-lord Flavius sent you a message about the situation, he ordered me to escort the colonist to italica and then search for you for reinforcements-

-well, now you are here as well as I with an army to help Flavius on the defence of the colony, tell do you know something about our enemy?-  
-yes, milord-

-good, I need to know about them, come, let's join the rest of the army-.

and so Marius and Cypus march towards Alnus for the defence of the colony.

in normal circumstances, a peasant would risk at travelling at night on a plain but because the Imperial army marched some months ago it was safer, so he made the mistake of going at a slower pace and deciding to not be more at guard on the nights,

the man was crying silently as he heard the screams of his wife and daughter, these creatures were playing with them, laughing as they beat his wife and daughter, he tried to defend them but the creatures just beat him and sat on top on him, he saw how one of the grabbed their daughter and let her escape and they made the same with his wife, he felt somewhat grateful that they let them live, the creature while watching them run, lifted his staff and pointed it at them, a great bang sounded and his daughter fell to the ground, his wife tried to raised her but another bang sounded and blood spurt from her chest before hitting the ground, smoke was coming out from the staff that the creature was using and he and his companons starded to laught,

-Oh, gods! please stop it! why do I deserve this!-

he broke into tears but they were muted by the creatures laughing, finally, they made him run too.

he stood up and ran towards the corpses of his wife and daughter.

-look at that Nabu-

the ape pointing the rifle towards the human said to his friend

-he can run but it choose to go towards his kin, the humans here are more stupid than the ones at home-

-you are right Tinul, let's play a little more before killing him-

Tinul pointed his rifle and shoot the human legs making him fall down just a few meters from the females, he and Nabu walked towards the females and looked at how they were barely alive, the human was screaming and crying without end at them.

-let's shoot them again shall we?-

Nambu nodded and started shooting, the male crawled towards him and tried to grab his leg, but Tinul kicks him and ended his misery, they laughed as started walking towards the rest of the group, this was their fifth group of humans today but it was already dark and it was time to camp and rest.

the campfire was already done by the humans so they used it for tonight rest, they were around the campfire talking

-this day was great, these humans are a much more fun game than the ones at home-

Tinul nodded at Ninian statement, they all enjoyed today's hunt

\- it really is, they tried to run in so many ways that I don't think I can hunt normal humans again-

he laughed while eating some of his nuts, and continued.

-I was really worried when we got here but now I could not be more grateful of this, I almost would like to bring some of this humans to home so I can hunt them with my child's-

Nambu smiled and joined the conversation

-how old is the little pest now?-

-Natille is twelve now and is about time that I take him to hunt-

-I agree I could bet that he is going to become a great soldier one day if he takes the same route as you-

Tinul smiled imagining his son using the uniform of the army, he was not an ape that praised someone appearance but he was sure that his son would be very popular with the girls on the future, tinul looked at Nambu.

-and what about you? don't you think that is already time to find someone?-

Nambu laughed

-I have always considered myself as ladies ape so I don't think that settling with someone is fair-

both apes laughed a bit and Ninian followed the conversation

-well, i think that perhaps I just need some little time before...-

he stopped mid sentences and all of them feel a chill, they started to watch their surroundings but found nothing, Nambu tried to calm himself eating more of his nuts, he grabbed them from his bag and move his hand towards his mouth but as he opened his mouth realised that the nuts were not on his mouth already and looked down and saw his severed hand on the ground, his sight started to fade and his head roll down from his shoulders.

Ninian and Timul looked at horror at the severed head of Nambu and raised on their feets with weapon on hand

-what the hell happened! is this an attack!?, show yourself!-

Timul screamed with fear, he saw standing some meters away from them a female human, she was small possibly a child, she was wearing black clothes and besides her was a giant halberd that was twice her size.

-Oh what an interesting surprise, I had never seen a race that looked like you, tell me, are you coming from Alnus?-

she smiled at them but they were frozen in fear, an animalistic sense of dread tell them that this child was dangerous, one of the apes in a panic lift his rifle and shoot her making her fall to the ground.

Timul took a breath and said

-what the hell was that little human I feel treated by her looks alone-

Ninian just stared at the girl on the ground

-we need to tell this to general Ursus...-

they nodded but a little laugh made them panic again as they looked at the child on his feet again.

-is disrespectful to attack someone without warning you know?-

the bullet sprout out of her body and the wound healed in an instant, she grabbed his halberd and started to run towards them, the apes started to shoot at her but she was dodging the bullets as she got close to one and slice him in half, she grabbed the rifle and tossed it to the ape that was shooting at her, he tried to continue shooting but she was fast and with a swoop from her halberd beheaded him

Ninian tried to run leaving Timul shooting at her

rory felt disgusted at the running creature, if he was a proud warrior he would stay and continue fighting but he decided to run and leave his friend,

she hit the ground with her halberd making big pieces of rocks to emerge and she hit them making them hit the creature and killing him in a moment, she looked at the remaining creature, it was reloading his weapon and looked down to his rifle, she ran towards him, killing him with her halberd.

She felt their souls passing through her and smiled

-This is gonna be an interesting time-.


	6. to expand the frontiers of knowledge

what some days ago was an imperial colony hasve now became the new headquarters of the apeｴs expeditionary army, the governor office and buildings in the centre have been repurposed to the management of the army as well as the investigation of any useful artefact and documents that were on the colony, the destroyed walls have been removed to help the expansion of the base, thanks to the streng of the gorillas, they could move the debris faster than expected, but still they were late, the distance itself from the ape territory was a poblem, the advanced equipment that they reguested was going to have a great delay as the forest kept any route dificult to maneuver, all these things have to be written down and reported to Urusus.

and for the luck of froydor of being the orangutan in charge of the council envoys as well as the apes sent by the research society, he now has to meet more regularly with the general.

Froydor was reviewing the documents on his desk, on his right was a list of different apes, both males and females members of the research society that have volunteered to explore and research the world on the other side of the gate.

the research society was in charge of all the technological development of the last decades, they are a branch of the department of science, having more liberty than the department itself they can research whatever matter they want, unfortunately since the army has grown in its size as well as the continuous military campaigns against the humans the financial support has been greatly reduced, if Ursus wanted to use this campaign to gain more power, might as well benefit the department of science as well in the research of whatever they might find there.

on the left of his desk was a pile of documents from different parts of the army, most were about permission to hunt for humans in the new world or to use the ones that were already captured to practice their marksmanship on them, he rejected all of the request to hunt or to kill their new tests subjects, the ones that werenｴt of that matter where reports about the scoutings to the surroundings of the hill, Froydor couldｴt wonder if the apes on the army have a lower intelligence because he already told them that this kind of documents must be sent to their specific leaders on the army or to Ursus and not to him, the final kind of ocuments were from Ursus himself reguesting materials to be sent to the army, he reguested more artillery and guns, ost of them were aproved since the special powes and liberties given up to him on this campaing but still Froydor and the rest of the envoys have some words on the matter.

Froydor was busy reading all the documents that he didn't notice the ape that entered the building and walked towards him.

-good morning Froydor, are you still doing the general homework? why don't you take a break and come out to play a little bit? is sunny outside-

Froydor faced up to meet the ape with the cocky voice wearing a white lab coat, he smiled when he finally identify him.

-long time no see Aulus, it is good to see you again-

-The same friend, how is the life of a member of the council? it has been ages since the last time we could talk-

-is a hard job and Ursus doesn't make them easier for me or the other apes, but let's not talk about that now, tell me, in what all you working now?-

Aulus scrapped his left cheek, he has almost all of his face with scars.

-well, I was trying to get one of those special humans that were captured but it appears that they killed them off and the rest were already sent to the zoo-

-they are something interesting donｴt you think? do you have already any theory regarded them?-

after a moment of thinking, Aulus spoke

\- I really don't have anything yet, at first I thought that maybe it was a mutation, of course, it still can be one, but the fact that the gate wasn't the entrance of a bunker but instead a new world makes it hard to think about what could it be, it is a mutation? Is it genetic? can we learn it? this are some of the questions that I have regarding this situation-

-Iｴm more worried about the hazards of this, what if they spread this to the humans in here? it is something like a virus or is something unique to this branch of the humans? perhaps we need to sterilize all the humans that we have captured just in case, I really wouldnｴt like to have a plaque of this kind of humans in our lands-

-but I would like to keep a few of them and breed them so I can continue studying, but that would be the case if they were any of them here-

Froydor sighted a little bit.

-you sound like the apes in the army, they want to breed them so they can have more hunting games, apparently, they like this humans more as they are smarter in the ways they try to escape-

-but that's the only similar thing, my friend they wanted to hunt, I want them so I can achieve greater things in the name of science-

saying that Aulus raised his finger to the roof

-I see that you are still acting as a mad scientist when explaining your desires friend-

-and I see that you still don't have any desire of becoming greater than you already are, my friend-

-what greatness is to gain if is going to end with a dangerous situation for our people?-

-the greatness of knowing that you alone were capable of doing it of course-

they stared at each other in silence, looking dead serious but after some second a smile cracked in their faces and started to laugh

-its good to see that you still regards your ideas as hight as always froydor-

-and Iｴm happy that there are still apes that still seek the knowledge no matter the cost Aulus-

-if it wasn't for apes like us I don't think that we wouldnｴt be as we are today, well my friend as much I like to talk to you I have some business to attend at the general office, I would like to catch up with you later-

-i would like that, i too have to continue with the documents on my desk,about that i see that you have volunteered to go the other side-

-that's correct but sadly the general still haven't given the green light he is insisting that the enemy is going to counter-attack and want to defeat them before allowing us to do it-

-it make sense, i would like that you are killed just because the humans are still in the area-

-I am surprised that you are agreeing with the general-

-I only disagree when he wants to do something against the will of the council or the research of the department of science-

-and for that, I thank you, my friend, well I will going now-

Aulus left Froydor alone continuing his work.

Ursus was observing his apes on the trenches, they were still finishing the last bits of them, they were working non-stop for the last couple days and although it was hard and tiring they were excited for the moment when the humans arrive to fight.

-General I bring the scouting reports-

-good, I wonder what they found-

Ursus smiled pleased he read the reports.

-Scouting party #1

-zone of scouting: west of the gate-

"we found on the west of the gate a human village, we observe just for half a day before moving but it has an aproximate of 500 to 600 humans in it,we followed the river and it takes us to a forest wich at the moment of our coming was burned in what appeared to be a fire, it appeared that there was a village there but every one of them were burned withou reconition, as we explore the ruins we find a well well what appeard to be a female mutan was at the botton, we decided to get her out of the well and take it back with us, maybe it would become a good especiemn for a zoo.

we found nothing more of interest in the area and we didn't have any enemy encounter.

he well dint like that they decided to take a mutant with them as that would encourage even more the apes in the society that were already pushing him to accept their request, he didn't like the society,maybe they helped with the development of some of the guns but it was all by the army demands for more firepower.

"well he thought I have to read the all after all"

-scouting party #2

-zone of scouting: east of the gate-

"they were plains and we spotted a road, at the moment were caravans of humans, they were an easy target so we attacked them, we didn't leave anyone alive as they were resisting too much at the capture attempts, they were some humans that attacked us but it doesn't appear to be part of an enemy organization, I guess that was some kind of thieves searching for a prey in the area, we have collected some of the things that their corpses have in them,

apart from the humans that attacked us nothing more of interest happen.

as Urusu finished reading the reports asked the ape beside him

-where is the report of the third?-

the ape looked at him with a worried face

-they haven't reported yet sir, they were the ones with the smallest area to scout-

-in which direction they were heading?-

-to the north of here sir, perhaps they were surprised by the humans-

-is possible that that was what happened-

he folds the reports and put them in his pocket, then he took his binoculars and watched at the north

-it doesn't appear that they are coming yet, perhaps they are planning something-

the ape decided to ask

-what would you like us to do my general?-

Ursus smiled and said

\- I remember that we still have some humans captured, yes?-

-that's correct sir-

he smiled and said.

-I want them all impaled and scattered on the surrounding area-

-it shall be done at once-

-is there anything else to report?-

-just some documents at your office about the request for more equipment-

-I will review it later, you can leave now-

the ape left Ursus watching his apes doing his bidding, he felt as the most powerful ape in the world.

Aldo was resting in the barracks when Banod came with new orders for them, the general wanted that all humans were executed and bring them to the other side where they would need to impaled them.

it was already the afternoon and he was, finishing his twelve humans, it was hard to put them in place and the dirty smell of the humans make him want to puke, and the fact that he has an empty stomach didn't help him at all.

he was with Banod at the moment.

-so how much more we have left after this one?-

Banod was drinking water and as he finished said

-we still have two more, we better hurry so we can make it to dinner-

Aldo nodded as he was writing the signs of warning on the human corpse

-and this one is done, where do we put the next one?-

-what about a few meters beside this one? they both have the same outfit so it would match don't you think?-

-you have a strange way of organizing you know that-

-well if I was a human and saw two matching corpses at each other I would be more terrified-

-I would be angry-

-you know I don't think that you have the right to complain about me, look, you still have that human sword-

Aldo touched it and unfold it showing it to Banod

-what can I say, is a nice sword don't you think?-

-it looks good but still, is a human weapon so I don't think that it would be proper to have it-

-if they asked me to dropped it I will but for the moment I do not make any harm-

-well as much as i would like to talk a little more about your weapon I prefer to finish doing this so I can eat dinner and have a good sleep Aldo, so we better continue-

-you are right, Iｴm already starving-

he continues carrying the corpses to end his job.


	7. we will build our own cities

-look, mom, those humans are uglier than the ones at the zoo-

Lelei heard voices around her and the smell of smoke surrounded her nose.

-don´t get near them, the humans could bite you, and god knows what kind of disease they have with them-

she couldn't understand what they were saying and when she opened his eyes her vision was blurry.

-please keep your children away from the cages these humans have not being cleaned yet and may being carrying diseases-

she tried to make sense of the silhouettes that she could see, it was, what appeared to be a man on top of a horse riding alongside the cage.

-please make space for the carriages to move, please grab your little children so they don´t touch the humans, miss please control your little ape from touching the humans, we haven't wash them since we grab them.-

lelei understood some of the words that he said and remembered the signs at that prison on the ruins as her vision become more clear and she could see her surroundings.

-all of you will be able to watch the humans all the time you want when we put them on display on the zoo so please make space for the carriages to move-

she looked in horror at the creature in the horse, it was the one that attacked her master, as she remembered that event her head begun to hurt from where she was hit,she looked at the people inside the cage, almost all of them were badly hurt, some have lost one or more limbs and they were corpses with them that looked that they didn't have any wound but at the moment of inspecting more you could see that they have some kind of hole in their bodies were the blood has long dried.

-if I were you I wouldn't move so much-

one the prisoners besides her spoke in a low voice as he didn't want to be heard or seen.

-Are you a mage right? I think that they put almost all of them in the cage behind us-

lelei just nodded and looked at that cage where the mages were being kept, there it was her master, he was lying in the floor of the cage, his face was all swollen because of the ape's beating.

-where are we?-

he didn't speak for a minute trying to find the perfect time to do it

-I don't know, we have been caged here for a day or two by now-

lelei looked the surroundings of the cages they were entering a city with buildings tall as towers with paved roads were different kinds of carriages passed full of different kinds of goods or transporting more of the creatures, the creatures watched lelei and the other humans with both faces of wonders and curiosity or with repulse as one would watch a dirty pest on your home.

-why do you have to transport these disgusting creatures on this street? my wife just put the clothes to dry dammit now all of them are going to smell like humans-

one of the apes complained at the soldiers guarding the cages, he was old and big for his age wearing an old coat and hat.

-I don´t really see the reason to even have humans in the zoo, I tell you I was in the good ol´ campaign of the 23' and the number of humans that we encountered make me realized that the only good human is a dead human-

he spat at the cage before returning to his home.

\- I really can´t stand these old apes, yes the 523 campaign was a historical one and all that, but they don´t really care about the new military campaign that we are having, I bet that they still think that we still use those old guns that they use to have-

\- could you believe that when I visited my old pa´ and ma´ in the countryside they asked me if it is true that you could travel from Froboda to the capital in only a week? they need to adapt to the times-

they continued talking all the way as they passed a pair of steel lines on the floor, lelei wondered what was the use of those metal lines but when they passed them the ground began to tremble and a loud noise started to sound, the clank of metal hitting against metal and a huge cloud of smoke appeared as a big metal machine appeared on the rails making noise with its horn the sound scared the horses and the humans inside the cage were scared at the giant thing that was coming to them, lelei watched the machine pass, it was a huge machine of metal expelling black smoke from its top, it was carring big metal wagons with coal, farm animals, goods and other kinds of things.

-I would love to transport these humans on the train, by now we could be on the front again-

-look at the bright side we can take one extra day here and eat some quality food for a change-

-what? you don´t like the rations?-

-maybe the gorillas can eat only vegetables and nuts but I like to eat some meat once in a while you know-

after a while, they stopped in front of a building that was similar to the one where lelei was captured,

-so these ones are the humans that were captured in the same area as the one in here?-

an ape in charge of taking care of the humans on the zoo asked them as he observed the humans.

-yes, I would be wary of them, they are certainly smarter than any normal human that we have seen before-

the ape was observing with care all of the humans.

-look at their eyes, you could almost feel the fear that they have, and look at that one, he is wearing an angry face, so many emotions in these ones-

he paused in front of lelei starring in his face in deep silence then he in a moment grabbed her face and move it with curiosity.

-just look at his eyes and hair what a weird colour wouldn't you think? what would be the reason for such colour I wonder-

she wanted to scream to let her go but he knew that it could be dangerous if he talked in front of the creature.

-could you at least use some gloves when touching the humans? you know that these ones haven't been cleaned yet-

a female ape appeared behind, using a lab coat making the ape letting Lelei´s face go.

-sorry, Dr Sorne I will wash my hand in a moment, is just that they are so interesting-

she came close to the cage wearing cloves and counting the humans.

-I want them in separate cages, the ones with exotic colours in one and the one's whit more normal looking hair in other, also try to separate them by intelligence level they may have, the normal ones put them with the rest of the humans and the irregular ones put them on the cages close to Creter-

-but how can we know the difference between the humans for me all of them look so damn stupid-

one of the apes said.

-well, it is really simple I would say-

sorne said as she grabbed the man beside Lelei.

-if something that Creter had shown us is that his kind gets really aggressive when they are touched by us.

she started to hit the man face against the bars, he tried to stay calm so he wouldn't be noticed but the fear making him snap at last.

-please leave me alone, don't touch me!-

he started to cry and push Sorne hand away, then he tried t climb the cage and try to pass between the bars.

-get him out of there, please-

the two apes opened the cage, the other colonist tried to move apart in fear of the apes as they grab the man and throw him on the floor.

-leave me alone by the gods, don´t touch me!-

he tried to run but the apes were keeping him on the ground.

-this one is very different from creter don´t you think Lemnus? both are males and show the same level of energy both where creter was mostly aggressive this one is more scared and acting on instinct-

-so what do you want to do with this one Dr?-

-well, I want it cleaned and sent to my operation room, I want to see what inside him-

Lelei didn't know what they were speaking but she knew that it couldn't be good for any of them.

At the Imperial camp, Marius was reading the letter of Flavius it mostly was information that Cypus had given to him as well as his theory of how the enemy would attack them, he had managed to form an army with the approval f the Senate as he talked them about the letters and reports of how the need of stronger guards was needed in the colony, cypus that was with him so Marius could ask more questions about the situation.

-what are your thoughts on the matter Cypus?-

Cypus body stiffened when Marius directed his words at him.

-in what aspect my lord?-

Marius looked with a stern face at Cypus-

-I want you to talk openly about what you think about this situation, do you believe this enemy could defeat my men in a siege? answer honestly-

-I wouldn´t know my lord the enemy was fast but they were doing only ambushes with a well-planned ambush you could defeat anyone-

Marius showed an angry expression making clear that it wasn´t the answer he wanted.

-I´m well aware of the art of war already so you don´t have the need to tell me that, the question is, so they can"plan a well-planned ambush"? if they possess the intelligence to do it they can be as dangerous as an ancient dragon, also it appears that perhaps you had forgotten to give some crucial information-

Cypus was scared of Marius, he was kind to him when he receives the letter but the more he wanted to know and the least he could say to him the angrier he became.

-what did I could forget my lord? I tell both you and him everything I saw in the skirmish-

-you tell us that they used primitive weapons as spears and bows and arrows when the initial attack happened but then you said that they got close to all of you and engaged in close combat, I am correct?-

-yes, my lord-

-then, what to they used in close combat Cypus?-

Cypus then realized that he had forgotten to say something important to Flavius, he stayed quiet in fear of angering Marius more.

-Are you not going to speak soldier?-

Cypus opened his mouth and spoke

-they used knives that were the size of half an arm, my lord, but I don´t see how could that make a difference-

-it makes a huge difference Cypus!-

Marius shouting made Cypus jump a little as he continued.

-If the enemy can forge their weapons then they are not primitives, and perhaps they can even build siege weapons, that would put my men out there in danger, but still, it could be a bright side to this-

-and what would it be my lord?-

-if an enemy has already defeated Flavius we could have seen them by now so it must mean that they are still under the siege, we still have time to rescue them-

Cypus felt relieved about that information but still have that bad feeling about all of this.

-tomorrow we will arrive at Alnus hill and there we will join with the army of the league principality that has more cavalry troops and dragons to support us in the battle-

-why didn't you request the support of the other vassal's sir? it wouldn´t be better for us?-

-this is just a minor crisis and I only request them because I didn't manage to gather enough forces on time, and if we formed a coalition against this threat they could think that the empire is weak and they could try to free themselves from us-

Marius laughed at the idea that they would even dare to try it.

-for now, we will rest for tomorrow we will cross the gate and help our men-

Marius makes Cypus leave the tent and leave him alone, he grabbed Flavius letter and read the final part again.

"I now that the boy must have forgotten about them using other kinds of weapons and they must be smarter than he thinks, I will send messengers as the battle progressed, at least I could to that, we both know that the colony doesn't have enough supplies to survive a long siege so if I don't send another messenger I must have fought with them already and If I didn't send someone to update the information about the enemy then it must mean that I have fallen in battle, in that case, I would only ask you to avenge me"

Marius closed the letter and go to sleep.

the next morning the Duke of League met with Marius and marched towards Alnus.

-I just gonna tell you something Marius, I want my men to be on the first line of the battle-

-I don´t see any problem with that, I hope that it will bring glory to the principality-

the duke laughed at Marius comment and marched his troops along his, the duke looked at the sky noticing something that was off.

-have you noticed the number of birds?-

Marius watches them and felt worried.

are carrion eater birds-

-but then what could they be eating?-

the duke questions were answered when he saw the hundreds of corpses impaled on wooden poles all around Alnus.

-General I bring a report, sir-

Ursus was on the ruins when an ape came riding fast towards him.

-what news do you have soldier?-

-we have observed a large army marching towards the gate-

-had the soldiers take their positions yet?-

-yes, sir, we are ready and expecting your command-

Ursus smiled at the young ape in front of him-

-then what I am making them wait for we have a battle to win-

he got on his horse and crossed the gate.


	8. for he is the harbinger of death

Since the first sights of the human army were made the apes took their positions in the trenches, Aldo was trying to adjust his helmet, although the army uniform was easy to adjust to the various species of apes their helmets were not, and so sometimes you were unlucky enough to be given a helmet two size bigger or smaller than your head size

-the humans are coming-

-perhaps they want to say something about your way of organizing their corpses Banod-

Banod let a small giggle out of his mouth

-oh really? I heard from the scouts that they were terrified to see them-

-so whats the plan now? what positions should be taken?-

-well for the moment we are good where we are so we must stand here-

-I heard that they were bringing some heavy weapon that was recently made and some of the ancient weapons, where are they?-

-I have no idea, perhaps it didn't get here on time-

-but how,? if they send reinforcement some days ago why they don't bring more weapons?-

-does it really matter? What are a bunch of humans with sword gonna do against our weapons?-

Aldo looked at his rifle almost intact except for some scratches from times when he hunted for humans and dropped by mistake.

-You're right Banod this is going to be like shooting ducks on a pond-

-also, we are not on our own, look, they but some of the machinegun nest on that end of the trench-

\- but I'm still a little worried Banod-

Banod was getting tired because he wanted to focus on the enemy that was yet to arrive.

\- about what now Aldo?-

\- I hope that the machinegun doesn't kill all the humans before us-

He started to laugh alone while adjusting his helmet.

\- just shut up Aldo-.

The sight that receives Ursus was of a flawless martial order, all of the apes were already in their defensive position and the mortals were ready to receive orders, an ape on top of a black horse rode towards Ursus.

\- Welcome General, the apes are well drilled and ready for you to command-

Ursua observed around him and he could only see apes ready to fight under him.

\- Good, very good indeed major Rove, what is the human army doing ?-

\- right now, they were putting down the corpses and moving towards our defences sir-

\- so they took the bait, any report of them coming from any of the forests?-

\- none so far sir-

Rove stopped for a moment before continuing talking.

\- but general there are some problems-

\- what kind of problems Major?-

-They have surpasses our expectation of how many of them were here, my reports said that they are more than 150,000 and they have mutants with them-

Ursus felt a cold shiver on his spine when Rove said the numbers.

-150,000!? That's impossible, we only have 5,000 soldiers in the trenches they will be overrun if they all come at once and what kind of mutants? What do you mean by that?-

Rove felt choked he has never seen the general so agitated before.

\- the mutants vary in size and appearance sir, some are bigger than the humans were other are smaller than them and all of them have weird skin tones-

-let's hope that they die as fast as any human, do my soldiers know the number of enemies?-

\- no, they don't know-

Ursus took a deep breath of air and looked around him, all of the

apes were in their positions preparing themselves for the battle

\- these apes, are courageous? They will resist the wave or will they flee?-

\- they are the bravest bunch I had ever seen sir, but the numbers of enemies can make them retreat-

Ursus grabbed the trumpet that the major has on his horse.

\- good answer major-

He rode closer to the soldiers and played the trumpet making everyone to pay attention to hi

-My Apes! We are surrounded by an enemy of hundreds of thousands! We don't have the strength to resist them and we can be defeated something never seen in the story of our society-

All of the soldiers looked at each other with fear of the upcoming battle.

-But let me tell you something, we are righteous! We are defending our home, we will not surrender to the enemy, they rage will be destroyed by our will, the righteous will see victory and by everything that is sacred I will not move from where I stand and by the end of the day we will see ourselves winning over them, the righteous will be triumphant!-

The Apes exploded on cheers and roars in the name of Ursus, Rove stood beside Ursus, inspired by the words of the general.

\- it was a great speech, sir, I am really moved by your words and I swear I will not move from your side and-

\- I REALLY expect that you know that the speeches are for soldiers or civilians, our work is to use this time I had earned us to make things work so we can see tomorrow daylight-

Rove just kept silent and nodded at Ursus.

The hellish roars that the creatures made could be heard even in the distance and made both man and demi-human feel uneasy but the rage that they felt at seeing both soldiers and civilians impaled on the field make them want to advance, even more, surrounded by cavalry guards Marius and Cypus were riding along the duke.

\- so do you recognize these people?-

the duke remarked while passing the corpses of the soldiers,

Marius looked at their pale faces of all of them.

\- yes, I do, they were in my colony back to the other side of the gate, Cypus, do you could tell me more about them?-

Cypus jumped a little bit, he was trying to avoid thinking or smelling the corpses around him.

\- yes, my lord, I can, almost all of them were at the colony preparing the defences when I was leaving with the colonist, but some of the ones that look more decayed were of the scouting parties-

Marius stared at the different faces around him, hoping that he would not find any well know one.

\- but something out of place here-

He remarked, making the duke to look at him.

\- what is it? that someone could defeat any soldier of the legion?-

\- no, but that it could do it without leaving any signs of a struggle in their bodies is-

\- well, you told me that they could be as advanced as any tribe, so it could be that they used arrows to defeat your men-

\- but even with that how could they do it so fast? we had a good number of soldiers on the defences that even with siege weapons the battle could last a couple days more-

-maybe they took advantage that your men were standing and used it to attack them, but I won't be a fool like them, I will go to tell my men to raise their shields and walk together and give the order to charge to my cavalry, see you in battle, General-

before he could say anything the duke rode towards the front lines giving orders and making his men charge, Marius was displeased with that action.

-arent you gonna go with him ly lord?-

-only fools seek glory on the front lines-

-its that a bad thing my lord?- asked Cypus

-they told us on the training camps that the victory will always bring glory to everyone-

-it is when you don't know your enemy completely cypus, then the bravery become bravado and that get people killed, including yourself, the only positive side is that it can save some of my soldiers from dying on the front-

-I understand my lord-

he tried to observe the corpsed and started to notice a pattern, the first ones that they saw were mostly members of the scout parties but then the rank and uniform started to changes the closer they got to the hill, right now they were passing the fort guards

-my lord, these were the ones that were close to the regent, perhaps he managed to retreat to a safe place-

Marius observed all of their faces, they were with him before he returned to the capital so he knew how skilled where everyone fighting, he tried to understand how anyone could defeat them without leaving any mark on their bodies, they looked intact with the exception of the dirty and ragged clothes that they have by been dragged around,he then noticed one wearing clothes different from the rest and just stood there closing his eyes to calm himself, Cypus looked to the death man in front of them, he was wearing the armor used by the tribune.

-help me putting him down Cypus, please-

Cypus just nodded and started to lay down the lifeless body of Flavius, his armour was intact as well as his body it didn't appear to have any damage in it.

-how could they kill him without leaving any trance, sir? I have seen him train and I know that someone like him could be defeated without leaving any injury, how is this possible?-

Marius made a small prayer to Emroy wishing for the soul of his old friend could rest in his realm for eternity, he then, started to inspect the body that was Flavius sometime before, he didn't show any mark in his uncovered body and in the front of his armor it was intact, out then he noticed that it was a small lump coming from the center of the armor and turn the body to its back, where the armour showed small holes where dried blood has come out.

-what happened to you old friend?-

he looked over at cypus while starting to untie some of the leather cords.

-help me with his armour Cypus-

he started undressing the body and then he could see the marks from where the blood has come out.

"what kind of weapon could make something like this?",he thought to himself, an arrow could penetrate the armour but the mark would be different this one was something new for him, he started to finger the hole and found small pieces of metal inside.

-so small, what could use something as small to kill someone as Flavius?-

while he has those through the front soldiers were getting closer to the enemy.

-cavalry charge! infantry charge! it is time to fight them-

the duke was giving orders to everyone but then heard a voice in a strange language.

-ALL, READY, AIM-

He watched his men charging, the martial discipline was great he has been watching their training for years now and he knew that they would be not matched by primitive tribe

-FIRE-.

the scream of the beast unfolded a horror in front of his eyes that he could never imagine being possible, his men started to fall like flies and the noise covered the whole land.

-Aldo, could you please aim correctly for once?!-

by the orders of his captain, they started to shoot at the humans on top of the horses, by good fortune for them the horses started to panic and made them easier to shoot leaving his riders at the direct line of fire of the guns.

-dammit! this helmet won't let me see!-

Aldo said adjusting his helmet and trying to hit the mark.

the machine guns started to fire as a great number of cavalry troops charged, killing them without mercy.

-HAHAHAHHA this new weapon is great, look how they fall-

the gorilla using the weapon was excited at the sheer power of the weapon it was his first time using it, but his strength made the weapon stable so wherever he pointed someone was dying.

-calm yourself and concentrate I don't want them to get closer to us-

the ape beside him wasn't as happy, he wanted to shoot at least some humans but the weapon needed someone to cool it and to reload it.

the trolls tried to get closer but his unique appearance made them a more prized target to the apes that have never seen something like them.

-Look at that Banod, they can resist more than a bullet but they die as well as any human-

for the size of the monsters, Aldo had more liberty in the hit areas of their bodies, but as many that they were killing the numbers were still getting close, some were trying to run away but the man in the centre of the lines made them stop, and made them charge once more.

seeing this, Ursus face turned serious looking at the humans and how they even wanting to retreat they kept advancing.

-who could have thought that they could be so foolish to advance without trying to flee, artillery! you may shoot now!-

he raised his sword, and if that was a signal that they were all waiting for, the mortals started to shoot at the columns of humans who raised their shield and walked slowly as their training told them to do, making them an easy kill for them.

-What is happening! men! charge! we can win this fight! don't retreat!-

\- but, even as he was saying that he was slowly making his horse move backwards and he was almost ready to call for a retreat, the creatures, on the other side, were laughing like monsters, as they used their witchcraft to kill his troops, but even like that he could see that his men were almost facing the enemy, he just needed to resist the impulse to call retreat, he knew that calling for it would mean that all of his men would try to run away, just in that moment he felt a strong force in his helmet that made him fall from his horse he was hurt from the fall but was still alive his helmet on the ground showed a hole in the front of it, by sheer luck it didnt pierced his head, he started to get up when multiples explosions started to occur around him, the men that were using his shield up where the first targets of those explosions, the screams of agony and smell of burning flesh made him lost the remaining composture that he still have left.

-Retreat! we have to retreat now!-

he started to run away in fear, seeing that the rest of his men followed him leaving the wounded at their fate, some tried to grab them but were shot down by the apes.

-Marius was shocked at seeing all the destruction and annihilation of his allied force, it wasn't a fight it was a massacre and he could only feel relieved that he didn't charge with the men as he was going to do.

-men we have to regroup away from here-

the legion moved with him he has lost a great number of soldiers that have joined the Duke on the offensive.

-Fix bayonet, let's kill the wounded humans-

the apes roared and got out of the trench killing the remaining humans on the field.

-is a beautiful sight don't you think Aldo? look how are they running away-

Aldo didn't want to respond as he killed the human in front of him.

-whats wrong Aldo we won the battle-

-I hate our helmets-

he said in a low voice.

-what do you mean by that?-

-well, I tried to kill the human on the centre of the enemy, he was using a strange helmet and it was shouting at the others, so I figured that he must be their leader and tried to kill him so I shoot at it and it hit-

-well good for you, you managed to kill a human smarter than the rest I suppose-

-but the fact is that I missed, he fell and I was happy but then I saw that it only hit their helmet where there was a weird plate thingy and not him, the helmet block my sight the moment I took the shot and I missed-

-don't take it so hard, they will come back and perhaps this time you will kill him-

-I hope that they are dumb enough to do it-

moments later an ape shouted in a very happy tone-

-these the last one! all the humans are dead!-

and started to roar making the other to join him cheering soon enough all of them were celebrating their victory against their first real treat.

Ursus watched joyously the battlefield, thousands of dead humans lay dead in the field of the hill.

-a great victory general, you must be proud-

Ursus ignored Rove and let himself savour the glory of his victory before getting again to the reality.

-they will come back they got scared of our weapons but know they will try harder and that when we will have the problem-

-so what do we have to do?-

-now that the soldiers are with the moral at its highest I will leave to the other side to oversee the reinforcement, you will stay here and lead my troops, you will only call for retreat if the enemy returns and start to engage the apes on the front trenches, understood? -

-yes, generally I will do as you ask-

\- Good major, I expect only the best from you-

Ursus left, leaving behind the cheers and celebrations in his men behind.

\- what in the name of the gods was that Marius!?-

Surrounded by injured soldiers the duke was disgusting with Marius.

-" primitives savages with bows and arrows", that was I was told but it was not what I found there!-

The Duke was touching his helmet and the hole that was in it he passed his finger through it and raised it directly at Marius' face.

\- this!, this is the mark shows that I was almost killed today! Because of you and the lack of information!-

Marius didn't say a word and you kept staring at the helmet.

\- if this was lower it would have blown my damn head, but I was lucky, but many of my troops were not, and how I see things you almost didn't lose any troops at all!-

\- who was the one that wanted to go on the front? you wanted to be the first one to crash into them and you have lost, now from what we have seen we can adapt, that's the way the empire had managed to gain control of this world, we don't stand still when the rules of battle changes we change with them we adopt those changes and with that we can overcome any enemy that appears in front of us-

\- and for that, you need to sacrifice my men general?!-

\- your men died because of your foolishness you didn't want to wait for a plan when we started to see the corpses if you have been a little patient in that moment thousands of you men would still be alive!-

-and perhaps if you have charged with us it would be a victory!-

The discussion between them made the soldiers to lose their morale, many were injured and maimed, the enemy didn't even leave them to carry their fallen comrades from the field leaving the ones that were still alive to their deaths, soldiers who stay close to observe the enemy next move where horrified when they saw the creatures killing without remorse any of the soldiers, they killed man or beast equally and they laughed and rejoiced in doing it, the report was meant to be kept only by them and Marius but the information leaked making the situation worse, the soldiers didnt want to return to the battlefield and now that their leaders where fighting some were even thingink of deserting when they have a change.

-My lord-

said Cypus riding towards them

\- I bring information that the reinforcement that you requested are arriving -

-Reinforcement?! what I was not told of that, you were blaming me for not discussing plans and doing things on my own while you do the same on my back?-

Marius ignored his statement and continued talking with Cypus.

-send them the message that we will commence the offensive again in an hour, they will be on the front lines and the rest of the troops will be on their backs-

"that way this troops will not flee the battle" Marius though to himself while he directed his face to the duke.

-we will attack once again when you are ready, duke-

-Are you mad?! what difference will it have this battle compared to the first one?-

-adaptation, duke, adaptation to the enemy-.

on the trenches, they started to hear the scream of one lone ape

-The humans are coming!-

shouted one ape riding a horse towards the trenches, the soldiers started to aim towards where they would appear.

-it looks that we can kill some more today boys!-

on the front trench, one ape shouted making the rest of his group to roar.

-I wish I was on the front again-

Aldo group has been moved to the second trench to keep all of

the soldiers fresh but or them it was more than a punishment as they loved shooting the humans.

-don't worry about that, we will have plenty of chances to kill them-

Banod was just sitting cleaning his rifle without a worry about the enemy.

-but what if they kill the one with the weird looking helmet? I really wanted to kill him myself-

Aldo has left his helmet because with it he could really aim.

meanwhile, on the front line, the apes started to see the enemy.

-they are coming fast!-

different than the first time the humans were running separated from each other it was tg+he same for the cavalry that was opening themselves making themselves a difficult target for the apes.

-all shoot at them hurry!-

all of them started to shoot them perhaps the new tactic gave them an advantage but they still have a superior weaponry, they started to fall one by one but the number of humans never ceased to come close to them, but as the apes where starting to manage the tactic, winged creatures appeared from the skies.

-what the hell is that?!-

one of them scream in horror as he started to shoot at it but the monster was fast and it dodges the bullets and when it hit it, it just bounces off its skin.

-we need to bring down that thing now!-

the machinegun ape said but the dragon flew towards him making the raider mounting it pierced his chest, the line quickly began to fall as more of the creatures appeared killing them and making the humans to engaged them in combat.

-Major!, we are overrun! what do we do?-

Rove was horrified seeing the sene hundreds of apes were being killed by the enemy's creatures.

-call for the retreat at once, we must return to our home-

the ape played his trumpet making the soldiers in the trenches to start to retreat.

-Aldo could you run faster?! they are almost in our tails-

they were entering the gate as some of the last lines of defence stayed covering them as they entered.

-general!. the creatures are retreating, what do we do?-

Cypus was coming from the field to bring more information to Marius.

-continue the assault, follow them to the other side where they are defenceless-

-yes, my lord-

-would you look at that, the enemy that you could defeat being killed by my men-

the duke looked in silence to the victory that the empire was bringing, "that was supposed to be me" he said to himself.

-I would like to command my men on the offensive Marius-

he said in a friendly tone.

\- Do as you please-

With the enemy lines broken, it wasn't a problem where he wanted to be a victory was going to happen.

\- alright, them if you excuse me I will be joining men-

The duke started to ride towards the gate where his men already began crossing it.

The smell of lead and the noise of the guns shooting echoed in the tunnel of the gate but still Aldo and Banod ran towards the light of the other side, but the screams of the humans were getting closer and closer to them, they were getting out of breath, "why the weapons dint get there on time? Why the reinforcement did arrive?", he knew that the number of apes on the barracks was far greater than the ones on the other side and that the weapons were supposed to arrive sooner.

The screams of pain of his comrade in arms were almost behind him when he saw the light.

\- ALL APES RUN TO THE LEFT RIGHT NOW-

He get saw General Ursus screaming and he did exactly what he ordered.

\- oh, that's why-

And all of Aldo's gears vanished and smiled.

-We almost have them men continue the assault-

said the duke starting to lead his troops on the tunnel, he gave up to the rage the moment he killed the first ape and now he was killing any ape that he saw, he saw the light of the other side.

\- charge men our victory against this unholy creatures are here-

He saw the grey sky of the other side but the first thing he felt was something piercing his stomach and killing his horse he trying to stand saw the thousands of Apes surrounding the gate they were everywhere they have the big versions of their arms pointing the gate and the ruins had more of them, the started to hear the war cry of his men starting to charge

\- da... DA, DAMM YOU ALL TO HELL!-

his scream was silenced by the thousands of rifles firing to the gate killing everything that crossed it.

\- continue firing soldiers don't let them pass-

Ursus was behind the wall of guns shouting orders to all the apes, Major Rove move to be beside him.

\- General, what is the meaning of this?-

He couldn't understand the reason for why the general hasn't told him about this plan.

\- This major, this is adaptation, these humans are smart and so they would adapt their tactics to fight us, we managed to kill so many of the first wave because his battle tactics consists of fighting close quarters with their enemies and charge with their cavalry as a wall of spears, that was their mistake, being close together to each other made them easy target for all our weapons, I suppose that they attack you with their troops separated from each other right?, don't be shy major is not your mistake to call for the retreat

\- that's correct sir...-

He paused before continuing talking.

-But there was something else sir, they have flying monsters with them, our bullets were useless against their skin-

-they will be dealt when their time comes, for know, we must kill all of the humans that are still coming from the structure, they separated from each other so they would not be gunned down, but this made them reunite with each other and so they are an easy target, but at the moment that they start to flee I want that every ape with riding skills to take a horse and charge at them -

-yes general, it will be done-.

The pile of dead soldiers made the troops retreat to safety but as they ran they heard the sound of horses coming for them, as they retreated they began to crash against the soldiers just entering making them a ready target for all the waves of apes that were entering.

the sudden noise caught the attention of all the soldiers that were still fighting the remnants of the apes on the hill, they saw waves of troops fleeim+ng in fear leaving their weapons to try to run faster as the enemy was killing everything that was in his path, Marius looked at disbelieving of that scene,"this was supposed to be a victory", he was left with the first offensive troops they were low on morale and only stayed because they werent going to be on the front but know the fro t was getting destroyed as the creatures startet to ride downhill one ape used a trumpet making an obvious sign, as they apes started to charge at them.

-men! , make a shield wall we will stop their attack-

he soldiers put their shield and lances facing the enemy, even if they were advanced a shield wall would stop any horse, but as the enemy was getting closer, some of the creatures stopped and started to used the weapon, piercing the soldier shields and killing them, some fell on top of other soldiers and made weak point and from that weak point the ape riders crashed breaking the formation.

-My lord, we must retreat we will be annihilated if we continue fighting!-

Cypus was screaming at Marius that was in a shock seeing his men falling to the enemy.

-my lord call for the retreat! sir please!, we must ARGH!-

Cypus scream made Marius regain his senses as he looked the young men holding his arm where blood was starting to spur out.

-fall back soldiers we must retreat now!-

the human troops started to run away but the ones riding the winged creatures were still killing the men on the horses, the bullets bounced off their skin but as many of the apes started to concentrate their fire towards them some hit the eyes making them lose balance and causing the riders to fall to their death and when some ape killed the rider on top the creature fly away from the battle, soon the humans were defeated leaving a scenery of only death Apes and humans as large as the eye could see.

Ursus crossed the gate once more seeing the corpses of the enemy.

-General the enemy is running away what do we do sir?-

General felt anger at seeing so many Apes laying death on the land.

-We must pursue them, they must die for all the pain they caused-

the sun was falling on the horizon and the stars started to appear on the sky, and the apes marched in pursuit of the enemy.

WELL IT WAS A LONG ONE, SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SO OFTEN, I HAD AN ACCIDENT WHERE I RASED HALF OF THE STORY BY MISTAKE WHILE WRITING IT ON THE BUS, I APPRECIATE ANY REVIEW THAT YOU MAKE ABOUT THE STORY BEING CONGURATEN ME OR NOT BOTH HELP ME TO TRY TO IMPROVE MYSELF AND MY STORYTELLING SO ALL OF US CAN ENJOY IT, THE BATTLE FLOWMTHE WAY IT DID BECAUSE I REALLY WANTED TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH THE WHOLE ALNUS HILL BATTLE SCENARIO, BECAUSE, YES THE APES HAD GUNS AND ARTILLERY BUT IN THAT MOMENT THEY DIDNT HAVE ENOUGH FIREPOWER AND ENTRENCHMENT OR THE CAPACITY TO ENGAGED A LARGER ENEMY THAT STAYED SEPARATED MAKING THME A HARDER TARGET AND MAKING THE DRAGON TO PROVE A REAL TREATH TO THE APES, SO THANK YOU FOR READING ME IT IS MY FIRST STORY AND I HAVE GOOD PLANS ABOUT WHAT I WANT TO MAKE OF IT SO SEE YOU NEXT TIME ON THE NEXT CHAPTER.


	9. I've awaited your coming and dreaded it

The apes rejoiced in their victory, they had repelled the enemy attack and now they were going to return the favor, but same as the humans that entered the gate only to meet with their death by the walls of guns the apes too only saw the death that the battle has brought, countless corpses of fellow apes lay dead in the trenches around the gate, the ones who stayed to ensure the retreat of the rest were brutally killed, their uniform covered in blood and guts, they had won the battle, but it was at a great cost, the lost of the lives of their comrades in arms make them realize something horrifying for any ape, the human in this world are smarter, they can adapt and defeat them in battle, they have the resources to restore their armies and though they do not know how many times they could do it the fact that hundred of thousands make them feel scared of the world that is ignoring the fact of the other creatures that were on the battle, they could die as any human but the flying creatures are the greatest treath they have ever seen.

"We will march at once"

The loud voice that was heard in the center of all the whisper of apes belonged to the general, his face didn't show that proud face that he has when they defeat the enemy crossing the gate, instead, his face showed an anger that only the control of his mind kept at bay for unleashing his rage on everyone surrounding him.

"If you don't want to, then you have all your rights to leave the army and return home as cowards that believe that it was better to run away from our greatest enemy than fight them and die for the greater good".

As much as some wanted to, none opened their mouth everyone kept silent as more and more apes crossed the gate.

"Good, then all of you will match with me in pursuit of the fleeing humans, we will take revenge of the enemy that killed our comrades, and we will not stop there, no, we will search their homes, their cities and destroy everything that they hold dear".

This time none of them roared in agreement, he didn't need them to do it, the sight of the death will only grow in time on their hearts making the sorrow to become rage and rage would bring bravery out off them, the kind of bravery that wins wars.

They began to march towards where the humans ran, they only left traces on the ground, but they were nowhere to be seen the revenge would become a hunt, and they were the best at hunting humans.

Marius walked around the camp, there were no campfires nor chatting between the soldiers only silence, they have lost the battle and the enemy will remain on Alnus, its sacred ground will be continued to be spoiled by the beast's feets, he could easily observe that they were already fewer men than when they started to retreat, he couldn't blame them for deserting when they could, they expected a battle but instead met with a massacre.

Marius's tent was deserted it didn't even have the same number of guards, half of them were killed on the enemy counterattack he needed to plan a new strategy that could keep them at bay but without taking more losses or the rest of the men would surely leave him, he has already sent letters to the capital about the tragedy that happened at his command and about the death of the leader of league.

They will arrive at the Senate, they would decide his fate, losing the command of his army was obvious and if the thing goes worse, one senator could use this opportunity as an excuse to have him executed and obtain the control of his army to gain more influence on the Senate room.

"What a foolish thing to do", He said to himself as he sat down in front of his table, maps of the area surrounding the hill where there, maps damaged by the countless scratch marks of the papers as all the battle tactics that he planned where now worthless when compared with the enemy power, the dragons proved to be useful fighting against them as they appeared to do not have anything to fightmen back,but, they proved to be smart enought to adapt to the challenge so the same tactics wouldt be as useful as the first time, but even if he came with a new tactic there is no promise that th men would obey them as now the morale is low, he knew that it was retreating to a safe place away from the enemy or making something to boost the soldiers morale. he saw the reports about the food that they brought with them, enough to feed a large army for a short campaign but now that the numbers were reduced they had a surplus of supplies, he stood and quickly got out of his tent and walked towards the soldiers lying in the dark camp that they had.

"men, today we lost many of our fellow soldiers to that damned beast, and for that, I can only blame myself and the now dead duke of league".

the soldiers looked at him with defeated eyes, he could say everything he wanted but in the end, his armour was still clean and without signs of battle, he commands them but who can even say that he charged with them or even fight alongside them and share the pain that all have?.

"but tell me? would our fellow soldiers want to see us cry when they are gone or would they want us to see us with the energy and valour to avenge them? I can't make up for the loses that we had today but I can give you a reward for fighting as bravely as you did , today we will feast with all the supplies we have, tomorrow we will rest and call for the entire imperial army is it necessary and we will fight back and conquer the beast that defeated us, so star the campfire and bring the wine and food and start eating".

the mood of the soldiers improved at his words, they were empty words and he knew it, the Senate wouldn't allow him to command more troops after this but right now he needed that the soldiers have enough morale so they do not try to desert even more, and so, as the soldiers begun to light the night, dark shadows looked at them at the distance.

Cypus arm stopped bleeding some hours ago, his face was still pale for the loss of blood, the bullet broke his bone and it was more than obvious that he could even lose his entire arm if it gets infected, something that can happen as they don't really know anything about the projectiles that the beast used against them, when a healer took parts of metal from his arm he realized that it wasn't some kind of magic but something that they made from they own technology, that was something far more terryfing for him as that meant that not only the special kinds of creatures in their ranks could fight like that but anyone of that damnded race and only the gods may know how many of them are out there, he tried to caml himself and took deep breaths he started t smell the soke followed by the sweet smell of meat being cooked as the other soldiers started to lit campfires everuwhere and eat from the suplies, some came with towards the injured soldiers with some wine and meat, when one of them aprach him he asked him.

"why are we receiving such great rations? did the General know of this?"

the soldier put the plate with the meat in front of cypus.

"is the Generalｴs order, he said that we will feast in memory of our fallen comrades and tomorrow we will rest waiting for all the reinforcement we need to win this war".

the soldier left after giving all of the injured soldiers their share, Cypus only saw his arm, pale and weak and wondered if it really would be enough to put more soldiers to win against those beasts.

All around the camp the soldiers were getting drunk and full of meat, cheese and other kinds of delicacies that they could find with the resources of resources that they could find with them, the drink and food made them forget even for a night of the horrors that they faced that day, and so they drank until they passed out, they drank until they throw out everything away, and all of them acted as if the celebrations that they were having were real and they were really happy.

"what a bunch of filthy beats" though Ursus watching them at a distance with his binoculars, he looked how the humans instead that having the feeling of compassion and sadness over their fallen comrades were celebrating as it means nothing to them, any sentient creature would feel sadness, real sadness for the death of his comrades and friend but it looked that he judged these humans wrong they were the same as the ones in any zoo or in the wild of his world.

"well, that is just proof enough that all of us need to feel no remorse for the death of these abominations of nature, these humans are only resourceful but does not have anything inside their bodies that makes them judge right and wrong, so as they didn't felt anything but rage against our brothers in arms we must destroy them for the good of this world and our own".

the apes were tired but seeing the humans celebrating that defeat with a feast like that make their blood to boil in rage making them forget that they were tired and hungry too.

"whats the plan sir?"

asked one ape beside Ursus.

"I want all the soldiers to join in two different groups one will move to the est and the other to the west, and then when they are on one side of the enemy camp I want them to crush them between a wall of guns".

"its a perfect plan sir, but what about the flying creatures? the bullets bounced on their skin, and they looked as if they were no damage whatsoever".

"we will deal with them on time if we are lucky and we found them on the ground, tell the apes to point to their eyes if they had any or try to use some of the hand grenades that we brought with us".

"yes, sir it shall be done"

"good, then start moving while its dark and the enemy is unalerted"

the ape nodded and as drilled they quickly arranged themselves into groups and started to move around until they were nowhere to be seen, leaving Ursus alone watching the humans with only disgust.

they were twelve men riding dragons with him when they engaged against the enemy but know they were only ten, all felt unbeatable using them as the enemy was scared of the dragons, they felt all powerful when the enemy started to attack them and the dragons where intact, he felt as how one of the apostles would feel when they strike an enemy down while they were untouched, but when the enemy returned mounting horses, he as well as the other riders thought that the result would be the same but it wasnｴt, all of them started to shoot at them and although the skin of the dragons where flawless agaisnt them some of the riders were unlucky enought that some of the projectiles missed the dragons and hit them, the first one that dived towards them became an easy target for the creatures when they were trying to gain alttidude again.

those though have one of the raiders while feeding his dragon, it was a beautiful beast, his dark skin and red eyes had a beauty that he couldn't find the correct words to describe it, the rest of the men decided to join the other soldiers in the drinking, leaving him alone with the dragons, the cheers from the drunken men at the distance make him feel lonely but being with the dragons comfort him in a weird way, he has mounted them for many years now so he wasn't scared of them as any other soldier in the imperial army, he felt the chill of the night in his skin and the silence that it has, he liked the silence, he could be at peace to mourn the death of his comrades that have fallen to the enemy, he kept his eye closed for a moment trying to forget the noises of the soldier at the distance and try to relax, the silence helped him to notice the background noise in the area, the wind brushing the nearby trees and the sound of insects around him, but it also makes him notice a strange sound, he heard something metallic has been oull out and so he opened his eyes and saw rolling on the ground a hand-sized black metallic ball, he kneeled to inspect it, but before he could touch it an explosion covered the dragon and him.

the sudden explosion shacked Cypus, he hasn't eaten any of his food like his comrades, so he was more counsious of the attack, but he could no see the enemy, he started to watch more explosion on different parts of the camp followed by the screams of the soldiers that were too close to them, they tried to run towards their equipment but the drink makes them slower and as the creatures started to shoot they were an asy target, he stood up and ran toards the tent of Marius, when he looked back he saw that the creature was already entering the camp killing the wounded solidiers first before continue advancing, some tried to defend themselves but it was in vain as one by one fell before the enemy. the loud noises of explosions and the creatureｴs roar covered the whole camp, the guards on the generalｴs tent were with their shields raised in front of them covering the entrances, they would already have run off if it wasn't that they were protecting the general, Cypus managed to get to them alive.

inside the tent, Marius was grabbing the documents on his desk and started to burn them out, if they were to fall to the enemy it would give them the information to march towards all the cities on the empire, that was something that he absolutely could not let happen, he looked at Cypus entering the tent with heavy breathing.

"good timing Cypus, help me with these documents quickly".

Marius handed some papers to cypus as he continued to tore down the ones he had on his hand, Cypus started to tear apart all the papers as quickly as he could.

"My lord, how can we turn this into our favour? the enemy is everywhere"

"we cant, we are as good as dead, the only thing left to us to do is to destroy all the documents that we have here before it falls on the enemy paws or else they could march directly to Italica, and who tells if they would stop there, they could continue marching city to city destroying everything in front of them".

the screams and noises started to fade down a little and soon the guards were laying dead, they shield pierced and bodies bloodied by the impact of the bullets, the apes aimed at cypus and Marius but they started to discuss between each other.

"stop, the one the right looks exactly as the others humans, but the other one, the other one looks different, perhaps the general would like to take him as a prisoner".

"Banod, the general said nothing about prisoners".

"yes I know but he said on the way here that we need to collect information if we find anything and if you look at them they are certainly trying to cover the information that we need".

Aldo and Banod were the first one to reach the tent as the other apes were more busy trying to kill the flying beats, some manage to fly away but the rest of them was an easy target when using grenades on them.

"that's why Iｴm telling you that we must kill them before they try to destroy the information and.. hey watch out".

they got too distracted and Cypus charged at them with his sword making Banod fall down in his back evading the slash of the sword, Aldo quickly raised his rifle and shot him in the head making the now lifeless body of Cypus to fell on the ground.

the heart of Marius was pounding so fast that he felt as it was going to bust out of his chest, in less than a second, the beast killed Cypus on front of him, he tried to move or at least scream but his body was frozen, these beast have the ability to bring death to all, things like hnour or bravely become useless as the beast pulled the trigers of their weapons, he knew that his life would end here and now the ape laugh on front of him and started to aim to him, he heard on the background the same cheerful roars that he heard when they were deafeted the first time and so he knew that his part on the war has ended, he hoped that at least some of the men could have run away and managed to inform the empire of the enemy, it was the only thing that he could to right now, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

and before he fell to the ground he was already dead.

_feel free to review and tell me your opinions_


	10. Why don't we begin?

The flames engulfed the imperial camp, the screams of panic soon were silenced as the apes advanced towards the flighting imperial forces, but the loss of an entire army was not the worst that happened on that night for the empire, Marius tent full of imperial documents, founded and taken by the apes, maps of the area around Alnus, maps showing the location of villages temples and cities all around the empire, the apes who marched in the search of copper, found gold instead, with the feeling of accomplishment of slaughter they returned victoriously, some of the captured humans who weren't going to be used on the target practices or being released on the woods for the horse-mounted apes to hun them down were going to become the subject of any scientist trying to find the answers to the mystery that is the human mind.

As the days became weeks, the news spread through both words, as the apes fortified Alnus, the empires send armies to retake the hill, but the apes now battle-hardened managed to be up to the challenge of the bigger and more diverse human army and repelled them, news of their victories resounded on their cities and villages, all the young apes that read or heard of the feats of the army felt a renewed love for the military and soon enough the training camps were at full capacity as never before.

Soon more apes marched to the new word, the beginning of new construction of military use surrounded both ends of the gate, it has been six months since the beginning of the war against the humans and finally, the research society had been granted permission to explore the new world.

it had been months since the last time froydor crossed the gate, the scenery was so different now, the field was now wired, full of sings on the distance on what appeared to be a minefield,it was placed to force an enemy assault to march on a bottleneck on the center and e easily gunned down, but now no enemy came close to them, the trenches were now better positioned along the perimeter and it could be seen apes exiting the base to scout the area, sometimes they brought back some prisoners.

with the dragon threat ever present on the minds of the apes, they have installed repurposed artillery guns now specialized with the duty of bringing the winged creatures to the ground.

with the sun in the morning sky froydor soon joined together with colleagues of the council and more leaders of the society

"you must be exited Aulus".

said froydor with some documents in his hand.

"you will the first ape t explore this new world".

Aulus smiled at Froydor.

"not the first froydor, the army already has sent apes to scout the area many times".

froydor raised his index finger in front of Aulus.

"first, first enlightened ape to explore it, with a mind more than capable of understanding what you see without wanting to shoot at it first and with a knowledge lust capable to discover great things".

"you just have me with high regards, I don't think that I can be any different from the other apes".

he lied about that, he really believes that this new opportunity would help in his career and many areas of the technological advance for the society, already Dr Sorne has sent him some letters regarding the humans on her zoo and how she is now discovering interesting things about them, he felt proud of his colleague but also felt jealous, while she was discovering and advancing the understanding of the humans as a species he was stranded on a base doing nothing for months, he only could wonder what kind of discoveries could have been achieved.

"but you will be my friend, I would have liked to explore the world myself, but the work at the base is going to keep me busy for a long time".

"it was a good thing that the victory makes such an impact on the citizenship don't you think?if it dint the council would never put enough pressure on the general to grant us the right to explore the territory, and now with the new batch of troops coming in he cant make the excuse that he lacks enough soldiers to grant us some of them as guards".

"it would have been better if this new world awakened a scientist desire instead, just imagine, hundreds of new university students becoming doctors in various fields and coming here to discover and create new things and helping with the honourable mission of expanding the frontiers of knowledge".

"they will be Froydor, believe me, once that we start exploring and bringing samples of the species out there more and more apes will want to join us, I hope that the autopsies and parts of the various creatures we already sent will earn some interest in the general population and awoke a new scientistic interest".

"or the interest of trying to kill one of them instead".

"don´t be so negative my friend, try to be happier it will do wonders for your fur, believe me on that".

said Aulus starting to stoke his face-

"if being that positive could put me on the danger that something may scar my face then I shall pass that offer Aulus".

"but being positive was what save me on that little occasion, my friend".

"I would prefer to evade the whole situation at all".

"but then how could us made wonders with the knowledge I may acquire in that situations?".

"with a well planned and secured area of course".

"but then my friend, it would mean that it is an essential need to have more cannon fodder than researchers doesn't it?".

"well yes, but, if the number of researchers can be counted with the number of fingers in your hand then is a great problem".

"in that case, it would be the research society fault if it goes that bad, if we don't inspire any ape, even the little ones on any corner of our nation to become a great ape on the society that they would rather become cannon fodder to any war-thirsty military leader than becoming a scientist we should even exist, don't you think Froydor?".

for any ape unknowing of the life story between the two of them it would appear like the beginning of a fist fight between the two scientists, but in reality, it was just the way that the two of them vented their frustration that they may have at the moment for any problem that they had.

"Sorry to interrupt sir but".

one soldier said he was not really hiding his expression from being bothered by having the duty of being ordered by other apes apart from the ones in the army.

"the carriage is ready for you sir, we can go out whenever you want".

"very good, eh you said that your name was?".

"Banod sir".

"o yeah Banod good, I will remember your name as we travel across this world".

Aulus said with a monotone voice as he returned his attention to Froydor.

"I will begin exploring today, the area has already been scouted recently and we have some info about what is around the area".

"and what is going to be your main attention Aulus?".

"there is said that on that area is a village where some humans live, so I´m planning to observe them see how these humans interact with each other when they are left alone, I hope that you don´t have the need to shoot one when we arrive Banod".

"I won´t sir".

"I hope that you meant it, little soldier".

Aulus was getting on purpose on Banod nerves to observe how he acted under constant mistreatment, to observe if with enough pressure an ape could get to act as aggressive as any other human as savage, but Banod kept his discipline till Aulus lost his interest.

"well it appears that he can keep his cool, I like that, he will be useful ".

"just don´t try to push him hard okay?".

"I will not froydor and you, you better try to keep Ursus content and under our control, if we want to explore this land as much as we want".

"I will do what I must old friend, now I believe that is not right to keep your subordinates waiting for you".

"I guess that you are right, well then, it was nice to see you Froydor the next time you see me returning from the wilderness I will be bringing surprising specimen for all of us".

"I wouldn´t dare to question that".

"now Banod, would you kindly show me the way".

"yes sir, this way".

Banod led Aulus towards the two horse pulled wagons where a group of apes were already waiting, they were both members of the army and some colleagues from the research society. they will be going to explore this new world together so Aulus hoped that all of them would manage to get along with each other in the future as right now although they were on the same group it was easy to watch that they were evading contact with each other.

as for Banod, the only thought that crossed his mind was, what a pain in the ass was going to be to babysit those scientists, and if all of them were as his leader, he was not sure if he could take it.

"Hello fellow comrades"

said Aulus with high spirits, caught everyone attention.

"some of you may already know me by now, but for who doesn't, I´m Aulus your new chief during this expedition, as we all know this new world is full of opportunities for the research of new species as well as technologies that will make us understand about the humans as well as ourselves, lets us expand the frontiers of knowledge using all that is in this place".

the research member approved his words, but the soldiers were left unimpressed, the only that made them curious about the doctor was that he has an odd personality for being a scientist, and the fact that he has a scar on his face that covered a good part of it, Aulus scrapped his scars and continued to talk while walking towards the soldiers.

"you, the gorilla on top of the wagon would you tell me your name?"

"My name is Aldo sir"

"well met Aldo, come let me shake your hand"

Aldo got off the wagon and extended his hand towards him, but Aulus got distracted by the sword that he had attached to his hip.

"would you look at that, what a beautiful weapon, may I take a look?"

"if you want sir".

"then I will".

Aulus grabbed the handle and slowly drew the sword observing every aspect of it.

"it is a well-crafted and beautiful weapon Aldo, tell me, from what human you take it? whom do you kill?".

"excuse me?".

"do not worry, I´m not judging your actions against the humans, I´m just curious about the original owner of this weapon, he was young, or old and weak old man? or something in between?".

"he was an old man, sir, but with a vigour of a young one".

"where was he when you found him? was he on that settlement r in these fields during the battle? was he on foot or mounting a horse or one of those winged animals?".

"he was one of the humans exploring the forest north of the settlement, when we found them he was on top of one horse, sir with all due respect, what does it matter where I fought him of how was he? he was a human after all he is the same as the rest".

"it does matter Aldo, that way we can learn about how these humans live, what kind of hierarchy they have in their society and how they behave with each other".

"I think that I understand what are you saying, sir".

"Well then, was he leading them or someone else was the leader of his group?".

"I think that I saw him at the front, almost all of them were easy to get rid off except for him and one of the unnatural humans that were with him".

the "unnatural" caught Aulus attention but right now he wanted to know more about that old human and how he died.

"so what did he do when they were under attack?".

"all of them defended themselves, but when that human opened a path he made one of them escape".

"so he sacrificed himself and his change of survival to save that human during the fight?".

"yes sir, then, I got close and fought with him for a little bit before throwing him off the horse and then towards a tree and finishing him by smashing his head with a club".

Aldo seen pleased saying that but Aulus was not interested in that last part of the story and continued with his questioning".

"and what d you think Aldo, were they kin?".

"what do you mean by that sir?".

"if they were of the same family Aldo, he saved him because he was younger than him and could continue breeding the next generation of his family".

"I don´t think so, they didn't look alike but it was difficult to me to noticed I just arrived at the last moment and they were wearing helmets".

"its okay Aldo, I will like to question you and the rest of the apes about how those humans fought and more specifics but it will be at another time".

"I don´t want another time", was the main thought on Aldo´s mind as Aulus walked away and met with the rest of the scientist "god, I hope that all of them are not like his chief".

although he noticed them earlier when he arrived it was going o be the first words towards some dear fellows colleagues that he knew.

"well well well, what do we have here, I really haven´t expected to see you both here, welcome Dr Tasus, Dr Critos, I thought that you two were busy exploring the western part of the territory, close to the ruins of the area of Calinia,the last thing I heard was that you were on some ruins named rectum or something like that".

"we were on Calinia yes, we found a new ruined city named "Cramento" if we were to believe some of those old destroyed signs, but when the news reaches us about a new word never seen before we couldn't resist putting the research on the ruins on wait and we came here as fast as we could, for my luck I arrived just in time to ride the fisrt morning train to the capital to then get a carriage to get here, and suprising enough Critus was on board of the same train, returning from his botanic expedition on nevada,he was tired after weeks of researching the local flora, but when I told him abouth what I read in the newspaper about a new world he signed up with me to get here".

Dr Taurus always has been known for his wanderlust, even for Aulus who saw himself as an Ape that always wanted to know more the idea of travelling as much as the chimpanzee that was Taurus make him feel tired, but still that Ape discoveries filled some of the main libraries with new exciting stories that caught the attention of the middle class.

And for Dr Citrus he was smaller than other Orangutans and he was known for taking more that one serving of food as well as how you could see his big belly showing behind his clothes, his face was extremely clean and well cared off, as he took great care that his glasses didn't get dirty while inspecting the plants, making him somewhat odd as why does an orangutan that was so obsessive with him being clean decided to get a job that was so close to getting dirt, but anyhow perhaps his works werent as well know as Taurus´s but they were brilliant helping with the indetification of new plants that had medical use for the society.

"what a great chance we have here friends, don't you think?".

"it surely is, the information about human behaviour by Dr Sorne it was the most fascinating to read when I found them".

"bah, that female may be smart but I tell you, you can´t get the same realistic result on a caged human that you would find on one in the wilderness, a shame that she does not realize that".

"I see that you still hold some grudge towards her Aulus"

"its not really a grudge Citrus believe me she choose the path that the only way to understand the human mind is to kept them on a closed environment and make lobotomies while I chose the most rational way that is to observe them on their natural environment and make dissection on humans that have more unique qualities to compare them and get to know what made them so different to the rest".

"but in the end, you two end up tearing the human body apart so I don't really se the difference".

Said Taurus following the conversation

"that is why you are an archaeologist Taurus and I am a zoologist".

"Well then, shall we start this little expedition?".

"surely we must get going before it gets later, we already lost one-hour waiting for you Aulus".

"and I´m sorry about that Citrus".

Aulus looked at the rest of the soldiers waiting and shouted.

"well let's begin everyone get on top of the wagon we will start moving right away".

everyone moved fast to their positions, Aldo was on top of the wagon and he was going to drive it, beside him was Banod with his rifle at hand as they started to move and leave the military base.

"hey Aldo, and how do you feel when you walked towards the human? do you think that my scar makes me look cool? would you let me lick your hand that you use to kill the old human Aldo? Would you kindly do it for me, Aldo?".

"shut up, or I will tell him that you were the one that decided to put the corpses by the clothes that they were wearing, so he can ask some really annoying questions to you".

"I just noticed that, but after all, the one who was closer to the corpses was you isn't it? so it would end up with him asking you more questions again"

"he really must love his voice".

"he sure does friend he sure does".

and so the first official expedition to the world began


	11. We will find our destiny

"Please pardon me for being blunt my lord, but it's now out of control, we have never suffered so many losses in so little time, how are we supposed to counter this situation?".

Marquis Casel did not take care of his words as he addressed the emperor, as well as the other members of the Senate, inside the building, were three hundred men sitting on the benches surrounding the Senate main hall, all of these men were senators of the empire.

"It was foolish of us to dismiss these invaders as some mere savage horde that could be easily taken care of".

"What would be done instead, was to investigate the enemy strength and then decided if they would have been more beneficial as friends instead of foes".

Continued talking the marquis.

It was not a mistake that the situation that the empire got himself was nothing short of a crisis.

Although the losses didn't cost so much to the empire, the fact that the expeditionary army that was formed to counter the invasion was completely lost, not only costing the lives of so many imperial troops and resources but the life of the leader of one of the vassals' states of the empire would only create a big political crisis.

"it would cause that the states would try to break free of the empire opposing the idea of becoming cannon fodder for them" as for how some of the senators believed.

"Your majesty how are you planning to lead this country!?, the enemy is in control of Alnus and it appears that every day they fortified more and more,even our messengers are in a difficult situation as more and more of them do not come back after scouting or trying t reach our vassal's states".

Finishing his words Casel returned to his seat, surrounded by other members of the Senate with his same ideas about the situation, staring at the men who criticized him, the emperor, slow and steadily leaning forwards opening his mouth.

"Marquis, I had considered this situation. after this loss the trust and military superiority would be lost for a period of time, however, it is useless to cry over spilt milk, now is not the moment to worry about the possibility of our vassals to raising against us and march towards our capital, is always on these kinds of situation where the empire grows stronger, as the emperor as well as the Senate the people join together to face the threat to our nation and overcome it, if we lose equipment we work harder on the mines and the forges to recover them, if we lose men then the women of the empire would lift their skirts and give birth to the same or a bigger number in no time".

With his remark, some of the senators snickered, but others, in contrast, kept on an absolute silence, it has been a while since some of the senators have started to plot to reduce the political power of the emperor as they saw as he didn´t have the right judgment to lead the state on these risky matters, after all, he gave the final approval to give the fallen Marius the right to lead an army against the enemy with the reinforcement of a vassal lord, leading to their ultimate demise, although it wasn't completely his fault on the matter, it still helped to boost the favor of the political movement to restrict the emperor power.

"So what do you propose marquis, I haven't heard anything than complaints!".

One of the senators on the other side of the room shouted.

I propose that we must gather our forces and continue the assault on the enemy, the losses will be high, but, if we managed to push them back at least a little bit it can give us more room to maneuver on this war.

Senators, that supported the absolute rule of the emperor as well as the escalation of the war clapped in approval, in comparison, the other senators that in silence have treacherous thoughts of defeat by the enemy wanted to level the terrain to save the empire or at least their own lives, unknown to them of the nature of the enemy that they were facing, they went the rest of the day without reaching an agreement and only scaring the relation between the members of the Senate.

"For goodness sake Critus could you at least let us explore the area without stopping us every five minutes?!".

Although they were out of the base for half a day, they haven't explored much, as for how much they do not want to admit they all knew about Critus interest on the new plant life of the area, every plant they crossed was a plant that was going to be inspected, drew on a book and grabbed it and put them to the wagons to be studied back to the base at ease,soon they were filled with plants.

"you can go on Aulus, Taurus, I don't mind if you leave me behind".

"you know the answer already Critus, we can't leave anyone behind as we still don't have enough understanding of the area as well as it is still possible that some of the locals' humans could ambush us if we spread too thin".

Critus just nodded in acknowledgement, it was something that he already knew and expect them to say, he had a lot of respect for his colleagues but as much as he respects them he believes that it was of uttermost importance to get to know about the flora in here.

"Aulus, what if, for some reason unknown to us the way to return to own world is suddenly closed? it would be a terrible thing indeed but what it scares me the most than the creatures of this world hunting us downs and eating us or worse is, dying of hunger, don't you believe that it would be for the best to gain knowledge of what plants are useful for us? if they are edible or not and which one could be used as medical substitutes".

"so what? have you found something edible?".

Critus smirked and looked at Taurus.

"Not yet, but you have to admit that the plants that I have gathered are quite beautiful don´t you think, oooh it will look absolutely beautiful in my house garden back home".

"damn you Critus".

said Taurus half-serious, laughing a little bit at the botanist easy going attitude ,he was feeling without worries too, the air was warm and comfortable, the noise of birds and the graze of the branches of the trees against the wind made the day as relaxing as it could be, for him it was more akin than a tour to the area than an expedition.

He had the opportunity some days ago to examine the human maps and had found that the number of settlements in the area was almost non-existent, it would take one or two expeditions to finally reach any of the villages.

He had some expectation about reaching it for various reasons, same as for Aulus, who wanted to study the human society, he wanted to study how these humans constructed their settlements, he wondered how close they would appear to the old ruined buildings of those ghost towns in "Calinia"

Even then he could observe that some of the buildings on the territory were different in appearance, some of the buildings on "Cramento" looked even different as they went further into the center of the city.

"Have you found something interesting Aulus? Some weird horned rabbit or something alike?".

"Not yet Taurus, but, if I see some ant colony I will call you, perhaps it will be of interest to you".

Some meters far from them were the bored apes assigned to protect them, some looked as they were about to fall asleep by the lack of any order the area was simply empty of any animal to get them busy, but, even for that they felt that it would be worthless as Aulus had told them do not shoot at anything unless he told them to do it so.

"It would greatly if the general retracted the order to guide these guys again, I prefer to be in that dirty barracks than being here with them, we are soldiers, not gardeners why do we have to take every damn plant we came across ?".

"Because the fatty wants them for something, I think, it is better to keep doing this, soon the wagons are going to get full and we can go back to the base and request to have our current orders change".

"I heard that the 7th cavalry brigade was going on raids today in the west area, and the 23th brigades went to the dawn to the south to attack where it is supposed to be an enemy camp of sorts".

"Sounds like fun".

"It really will be".

On the open dry field the 23rd, composed of the 1st,2nd,5th and 6th infantry battalions with the support of the 8th cavalry regiment was preparing for a short battle, they observed the small group of humans forming battle formations and preparing to charge.

Colonel Gendor was observing the mediocre display, they found them some hours ago and the enemy took his time to notice them back and when they did the apes were almost in full position to fight them.

"Colonel, the apes are in position and ready to act at your command sir".

"Well, tell them to fire at will, when they're on the range, they do not look as tough as the other we had fought so far and I'm sure as hell that they will die just as easy as any of the human or beast of this world, I want the 8th to divide itself into two groups, one will harass the enemy from the right while the other half will encircle the left flank with the support of the 1st, at the moment that the line breaks we will start hunting them down".

"Understand, sir".

the soldier left the Colonel and start giving signals with the trumpet soon enough the apes starting to take positions and move around, on the other side the human army moved, the battle cry of beast and men alike could be heard, "what a pity", the colonel though, they believed that they could frighten the enemy army trying to sound more menacing than they really were to the apes,"fools, all of them", he could see a man on top of a horse leading them on the front, its armour looked well made compared to the rest shining the man itself looked full of confidence despite the obvious lack of knowledge about its enemies.

"What kind of beast are those?" the noble leader, though,"did The empire expanded their frontiers and conquered some unknown land without us noticing? No, it could not be, but, the empire did cross the gate some months ago, but so far as I knew the place was in ruins, but perhaps that was a lie, what if they found a new tribe of beasts that were easily controlled and this is some kind of testing of these creatures" the toughs ran wildly in his mind the empire had lost one of the leaders of one of their vassals it was not impossible that it was part of some plan "maybe they killed him so they could finally annex them and to crush any opposition" his mind working faster with every second.

"They would use these creatures as cannon folder so the invincible imperial war machine could attack them when they were still busy and destroy all opposition with ease".

He dammed the empire as he was on his own personal mission, but if he could help the principality, it would prove a good ally in his quest, and in favor, for his ambition, he decided to attack.

"Charge men charge and we will find glory at the end of the day!".

as he advanced the sound of trumpets were made followed by the scream of enemy horses he ignored them as his own horsemen were moving all ready to engage them but after some mere seconds he did not hear the sound of screams on glorious melee but instead heard lthunder and the screams of panic and agony of his men, his horse panicked and he lost the control for a second and before he could regain the control more noise was made and he fell from his dead horse crushing his leg in the process, he couldn't stand and he observed the men and creatures falling to the ground, lifeless,"what is happening? What the hell is happening?!, why did this happen?!, he started to panic, but no one ran to reach them, instead he looked to his own men, once loyal to the death to him or as loyal as they looked when they first joined his cause was running away, but they were soon cut out as more of the beast on horses arrived.

"Fix bayonets! Charge! Do not let anyone live!".

He could hear the strange words of the enemy and feel them coming ever closer, then he saw it, black,fur as black as the night with a horrendous face that could only belong to the most hellish nightmares standing on top of his horse making extra eight against his leg, he screamed and the best noticed him, some hellish smiled appeared on its face, he tried to scream but it couldn´t the ape thrust his bayonet to the noble chest ending his life and dreams.

"All human were killed sir, and it appears some of the beasts had runway do we pursue them?"

The colonel looked at the battlefield.

"Nah, let them be, I think that they will not be any problem for us now, also"

He fixed his gaze on the humans that were wearing armor.

"I think that the beast on this world do not fight them because they are defending themselves and their species, they're slaves of the humans as perverse as it sounds, they control them, let them free they I time will return the favor".

The ape Warband soon regroup and continued marching, from the distance some orcs and goblins saw them go away, after years of slavery they could return home again and they would never forget that.

on the mind of the colonel was only the rejoice of the victory and how he saw it the liberation of the mindless slaves of the humans, "the world will be freed from the human menace and we will have peace forever" he tough, but he did not care about the army he defeated, he didn't care about how they were on a quest to rebel against one of the local kings, nor how a young exiled noble united a warband to freed them of the tyrant nor how that man wanted to change the laws of the kingdom to make it equal to everyone not mather their species, nor he knew about if successful he would eventually make a new society for all.

He did not know about all, nor cared and never would


	12. This is a madhouse!

First, she felt the raindrops falling on her once white, clean skin; now covered in dirt and bruises; then it followed the smell of feces and the rotting of human flesh; then screams in horror and agony woke her fully as two Apes took a captured human out of the many zoo cages, to never return.

That has been Lelei´s daily morning routine in the last few weeks, her already slim body has become even skinnier and weaker, the rain had a meaning for Lelei and the rest, it would mean that they were not going to be taken out to the zoo that day.

The Ape´s zoo compared to the one found in the ruins lacked the complexity and simulated habitat, these cages were simple that cages, iron bars, raised and twisted on a bubble-like shape to keep them easy to see to all visitors of the zoo.

Day after day, the apes came to see the newest attraction.

"Come and see the world fourth wonder!".

"It is a magnificent thing or abomination of nature, come and see the newest creatures".

"Come and meet the humans with a mind of an ape, wonder with their funny acts".

Those kinds of posters were all around the entire zoo when the apes brought the first captured humans before the full knowledge of the other world reach them, now that the majority of the apes' population knew something about the human's origins now the visitors looked at them with amusement but others, older apes looked them with uttermost disgust, with the tough of what dangers would they be if managed to escape and reproduce.

"Lelei" muttered Kato "they are coming"

He has seen better days,his robes where forged apparatus when the ales put him in a cage containing only humans from this world, they quickly got over him and best him before the zoo guards got him out of there,he hoped to be put there again now as the ales where right now taking colonist and guards from the colony to be used on the laboratories,he and lelei needed to stay silent as they soon found out that the apes took a special interest to those who were mages were mainly chose to be tested on, so they put a lower profile, and never tried to escape, once when they were by the first time put into the ages one of the apprentices managed to freed himself and managed to knocked

down one of the apes and made a run away from there, but his spellcasting was not fast enough as the apes quickly responded by shooting him down, now they were waiting for the perfect moment to try to make an escape attempt.

"food time beast"

a gorilla shouted while pushing around a wagon full of fruits and vegetables, most of it was barely edible by any normal standards, but they still eat it as they soon discovered that the alternative would be they dying.

he grabbed a bucket and fill it with the food before throwing it into the first cages, the ones where the normal humans from their point of view were, these were comfortable for them, the savages immediately ran towards the food and started to fight with each other for bits and pieces of the food, son the same savages started to fight with each other for more of the food.

"hey stop that already you filthy beast"

said the keeper while beating his baton in the bars of the cage, the savages ran to the wall in fear of the ape.

"good," said the ape continued moving the wagon.

he then arrived close to the cages of the captured humans, his mood was bad now he still felt uncomfortable around them, the way they looked at him was not of only fear but hatred, so many ape-like emotions directed at him made him feel as he was doing something wrong to them. the more he looked more emotions started to rise within him, soon he snapped and threw two buckets of food to them, he felt better when giving double ration to them as he saw that the humans looked grateful to him, that feeling of goodness became rage as he thought of what the other apes working with him would think of it.

"now eat! damn monsters!".

he said and then left to continue doing his daily work.

"its time to eat now lelei" whispered Kato, lelei just nodded.

in contrast to the savages the colonist collected the food into a small line and was rationing the food, and making a line, they agreed to gave extra ration t the mages and the soldiers as they would prove to be essential for the time to escape happened.

"here is your daily share".

a deeply scarred man hand her the food to lelei, he has been n the zoo for the longest time than any of them even before the apes started to capture the wandering colonist on the forest, Aleianus despite how he looked had a quick recovery, the beating of Ursus just make him more scars to join the ones he already have on his body, he recovered quickly, "it is a skill of this kind of job" he said once.

"do they took someone of our own today?"

"not today, but they took two from the cage next to ours"

lelei continued

"that would mean that in two days are going to take one from ours"

"did you managed to understand their routines?"

"lelei nodded

"very impressive, if I must say it so, but coming from mage I guess that it was nothing I couldn't expect"

he took a bite of one of his fruits and left to a corner to sit, they have learned fast enough that if they speak between each other for a long time the master of the zoo would take a special interest and bring them to his personal room to never be seen again, that ape was different from the others, first it was not a gorilla it was a smaller race and by the aspect of its appearance a female, she rarely went close to the cages to take the human by herself, she prefered t look from a window on the other site of the room, she instead of wearing the black,purple or green clothesof the difeferent ape workes on the zoo se used a big white coat that looked unsetting clean, and whren she talked her voice sounded s calm that made all of them feel scared of her in a different way that how they felt about the others.

this day she was absent, s they spoke more than usual now they felt safer.

kato walked with an effort towards lelei.

"I´m wondering what they are saying".

said Kato, sitting beside lelei making noises of struggles while doing so, his old age made him no longer be able to take too many damages now his body would needed weeks to fully recover and still then he would never be able to move as he used to

"it would be useful to know the language"

"I have been paying attention to how they speak, I managed to learn some words but it would take me more time to fully understand them".

"but managing to learn at least some words from them is still impressive and it shows great advancement on your understanding of these apes, we could even at one point talk with them".

lelei kept silence while her master spoke she didn't pay attention to what he was saying and kept watching the wounds all over his body.

master, why don't you use magic to heal yourself the leader of the apes is not here.

Kato face turned sour and stated to speak.

"they appear to be observing us even more recently if one of them by any chance saw casting a spell both of us could get killed, some weeks of pain is better than risking ourselves being chosen".

Lelei kept silence, his master carefree attitude has gone away since they were captured and his confinement on the cages and the last weeks have made him aged almost ten years.

the day went on with only the sound of rain.

the next day arrived, the caretaker give them the same double ration to them as always the morning routine began, today didn´t begin with any rain and so half an hour later a group of gorillas appeared.

"Alright lads we need to prepare the animals for today´s visitors, take three of the little humans from cell A, those will be on the playground for the kids".

one gorilla said while checking some paper on a wooden board.

"do we wash them, boss?".

"are they covered in poop?".

"no, but they really stink".

"then it doesn't matter hurry we need to be ready by eight o'clock".

the gorilla continued while they started to take some little kids from one of the local human's cages, he watched while scratching his forehead and continued.

"then for the "intelligent beast" area, take one from cell D and three from cell E, and could all of you hurry? we are short on time, could someone please rush to B and take any of the younger humans?".

the gorillas obeyed, moving fast to the different directions, some were careful taking the humans trying not to harm them, other gorillas those who were recently hired were more brutal on the ways of moving, dragging the humans on the floor while holding their fees.

Although lelei and Kato were in the same cage they were separated by different areas of the zoo, both were in the Intelligent beast zone but separated by age.

the Intelligent beast was named for local humans captured on the wild of the world that after years of being there started to mimic more action of the apes, but with the arrival of the colonist the zoo owner decided to make a generous donation to the military camps on live targets.

countless families of apes passed the paths between cages observing, for many of the it would be the first time seeing a human as the city was deep within the ape territory, for the older apes it reminds them of another time when no matter how deep into the nation you were they would always be one or two packs of humans.

"did you fought against them grandfather?"

a young ape said to an older ape, his fur already grey and using a cane to walk properly.

"Oh yes of course I did, I served under General Domo himself! ahh, the greatest general that have ever existed I´m telling you."

"ehh? I believed Ursus was better, dad told me so"

the conversation picked Lelei attention and tried to follow it, she saw how they both sat down in front of her cage.

"you dad knows nothing boy, Domo brought civilization and order to the wildest part of this nation, before you dad even was born the humans were everywhere and eat our harvest, yes boy we were without food many times in my youth, not something that your dad would know".

"but I overheard that Ursus humans are the biggest threat to us, grandpa, I heard that they are smart as us"

"bah sensationalist news I bet, let me tell you boy if these humans were a threat why would be so far from us? a threat is something that is close to our homes, not something that is in a so-called new world".

"I think I understand grandpa"

"I hope you really do understand Natille, this family already has enough soldiers I want you to be something different".

"but that said that I would be a great soldier grandpa, e even told me that when he returned it would take me to hunt".

"bah and I decided to take you here on the zoo to look at the humans from a different perspective, yeah they are filthy and dangerous on the wild, but if you look at them they can look noble, just look at their eyes boy".

they kept silent and looked at the humans lelei find herself making direct eye contact to Natille, the ape smiled the longer the time passed and despite the fear she felt towards them she didn't felt threaten by he little ape and cracked a small smile, Natllie immediately broke eye contact and grab his grandfather shoulder.

"grandpa! look! that one smiled at me!".

He said while agitating his grandfather shoulder and pointing at lelei, she averted her gaze.

The grandfather chuckled a bit.

"well-done boy, I told you, noble creatures, I bet that you would be better as a scientist or something like that than as a soldier".

he stood up and grabbed his cane.

"come boy, its time to return home, your mother must be already be waiting for us for dinner, ha I bet that Timul that stupid in law must be missing your mother cooking".

"yes, moms cooking is the best".

they continued walking as the orange sky started to turn black, Natille looked at the sky and while pointing the sky shouted".

"grandpa look it's a shooting star!".

"It really is, boy, make a wish before it disappears".

after thinking for some seconds he finally said.

"I want father to have a safe return!".

they left the zoo as well as the rest of the apes, lelei stared at the big red shooting star trying to understand what it meat by making a wish to it, she quietly opened her mouth and said.

"I wish to get out of here".

at night all the humans were returned to the cages, the new employees were I charge of doing it so it was rough for everyone.

"hurry I really want to go home already and take a shower".

one said while pushing lelei and the other back to the cage, some tripped on the lower bars and the gorillas kick them to make them enter, then Kato followed he still walked badly so when he fell to the lower or they did not notice that his leg was still out of the cage when they closed it, he screamed in great pain s the gorillas removed the gate to freed him and move his body entirety to the cage.

"idiot look at what you did, we are going to get in a problem"

"what does it matter it's an old human I bet that if he dies today would not make any difference whatsoever, no one saw it so we better kept our mouth shut on this"

the other gorilla nodded while closing the gate correctly

"if they say something about this I will blame you, this is my first job after a long time and I really want to keep it".

they left them alone, Kato was grabbing his leg that was becoming swollen by the injury lelei charge to his side.

"master we need to heal your injuries, I know you don´t want to use any spell but there is a risk that you may die if you don´t do it".

kato nodded while Whimpering, he opened his mouth and cast a spell that heals him to the minimum just enough to not be noted by any of the guards the next day.

as he stpped the spell he sat down pressing his back on the bars of the cage, lelei grabbed his shoulder helping him, then she raised his head and looked directly at the window across the room then she made for the second time eye contact with an ape, but this time she felt terror, the female ape ws there looking at them, piercing kat and leleis skin with her gaze, her mouth curved into a small smile,lelei felt that her and the ape eye contact lasted whole hours but after some seconds Sorne looked away disappearing from the window. that night lelei couldn't sleep.

the day was silent, the most silent day that Lelei had ever had since she was put in there, they have already eaten and it was supposed to be the time that they were taken out to the zoo but it just didn't happen, she heard the noise of some door opening and soon appear with two gorillas carrying a leash and a long stick.

she got close to allies cage and looked at her directly.

"good morning bright eyes, oh dear you don´t look so good".

Sorne tried to pet her but lelei back away.

"oh don´t be like that little one, I want to become good friend with you, I wonder how much you know".

she grabbed one of the bars looking at the humans inside, she found Kato lying on the floor sleeping.

"please take that old man to my laboratory, I´m quite interested in him, also, didn´t I told all of you to accommodate them by hair an eye colour too? hurry up please".

she looked at lelei and the other one more time before going to his laboratory, she ignored the screams of Kato and lelei as she entered the room.

days passed and Kato did not return, lelei already lost hope of seeing his master again till one day they took him out of the laboratory, his face was serene but he was now bald and just walked when the apes push him around they put him at a different cage beside the one where lelei was, he just kept staring to the wall not moving, lelei could watch him move his lips without really trying to make up words.

"master? are you okay?".

but he did not answer to her he just keeps watching the wall and moving his lips, more and more of the colonist observe him, Aulelianus adverted his gaze with a sad face.

Master, what are you not answering? continued saying Lelei but still Kato mind was in a totally different place, finally he moved, not t watch her but t lay on the ground therewith horror and grief Lelei could see the large scar on his master skull, she wept as she really lose the only person he knew now she was alone in a strange world.

days passed and it was the time when the apes brought a new shipment of humans.

"hurry lads we don´t have all day".

once again the same group of apes arrived but not to take them outside again but to distribute the newly arrived captured humans to the cages.

"all of these are natives so we don´t need to organize them like the other, but still we need to hurry".

lelei looked at the humans being moved they all looked the same with an empty gaze and moved like cattle by the apes.

Sorne arrived to watch over the operation.

"how great these new specimens look just fine".

she walked along the crowd of humans watching their bodies

"boss this one is still resisting!"

Lelei look at the man he has a dirty blonde hair and he was wearing clothes so different to the rest of them, even compared to the one clothes of the apes his looked as it was from another age, made by a totally different method posible, it was white althoug it has been damaged and mess up and looked dirty, he has a bangage around is neck was blood could be seen, he ws trying to make word but the wound just did not leave him to do it, he was put between the rest of the other humasn but he acted diferent than the others, he as soon was trwoh in there ran to the bars and reached his arm out of the cell trying to attack oneof the gorillas.

they laughed at him and his poor attempt.

"Doctor he is really something else, this pack was captured near the outskirts of a farming area near the forbidden zone f the east".

Sorned nodded and stared at him

"interesting, is he the only one showing that kind of behaviour?".

"no doctor, there were other two with him, a black male using a weird yellow thing and another white like him, the black one was killed during the hunt and other was taken training camp with most of the males".

"I tough that they first went to me and then to the camps".

"new order, now most of the mals must go to the training camps to become live targets that way we-

the gorilla was interrupted by the man pushing the bars and trying to pass between them.

"hey stop it now or I will punch you in your ugly face!"

he stopped, Sorne looked at him surprised,"does he understand us?". the doctor thought for a moment before continuing talking with the gorilla.

"you know what? come with me I want you to take a letter to your superior right now".

she dragged the gorilla with her to her office leaving them alone.

lelei stared at the man he after trying to squeeze himself between the bars sat down and looked to everyone else, he then kept staring to all of the colonists, lelei at that moment knew that he was different from the human on this world and tried to speak to him.

"can you speak? are you like us?".

Lelei started to make questions but the man looked at her with a weird face, he looked at her s if she was something really different to him.

"how where you captured? where did the capture you? what are those clothes?"

he looked at her the same way but this time he raised the palm of his hand and separated his middle and ring finger making some kind of sing that lelei could not comprehend, but a sign nonetheless, she pointed at her chest and said.

"I´m Lelie la lalena".

the man tried to speak but he groaned in pain and grabbed his throat, then he pointed at his clothes on his arm was a series of letters written under some kind of looked at it.

"your name is...Taylor?".

the man nodded fast, hurting his neck again in the process.

Lelei was surprised at Taylor's answer.

That man looked as he could take the apes head on and have a chance to win, that was what Lelei and the others needed, he could become their change to escape this planet of the apes.

Hallo, marleli here, thanks for enjoying my story i have still great plans for how i want it to go, but if you have any opinion or something you would like to see be free to comment it and review the stor it really helps me to tr to be better at this, see ta on the next chapter!.


End file.
